Til the End of Time
by Gummy
Summary: Chihiro is called back to the Spirit World, and she is faced with a powerful new enemy. During it all, her love-life with Haku grows. She also meets many new characters. ~Chapter 15 is up!
1. From Where We Left Off

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Spirited Away, no matter how much I wish I do. It belongs to Hayou Miyazaki, and I don't take any credit for anything brought into this story form the movie.

A/N: This is the first fan-fic that I have written, so please be kind with the reviews ~_^ Also, I couldn't remember her friends name :( I think it was Ruby, so that's the name I used.

_ "Will we meet again sometime?"_

_"Sure we will."_

_"Promise?"_

_"Promise." _

Chihiro clung to these words while she walked back through the tunnel. As she neared the car, she saw the two-faced stone, and a single tear ran down her cheek. Seeing it reminded her of everything she was leaving behind: The bath house was like a second home to her. She knew that she would always miss Rin, Kamajii, Bou, No-Face, Zeniiba……… and especially Haku. He was the one who guided her throughout her adventures in the Spirit World. He was the one who had saved her from drowning, and she had saved him from Yubaba. Being there in the Spirit World had made her braver and more outgoing, too. But still, she knew she would never again know any place like it.

_ It had been six years since her trip to the Spirit World, and Chihiro had changed a lot. For one thing, her hair was much longer. She was still as scrawny as ever though, but she had a very nice figure otherwise. She didn't think about her adventures much anymore though, and when she saw something that should reminded her of it, she didn't really notice. Her memories were slipping away from her....... Suddenly, a voice shook her out of her daydream of long ago........ _

"Wow! Chihiro, look at that place! I'll bet they have a great selection!" It was Ruby, Chihiro's best friend. She and Chihiro were sitting on a bench eating ice-cream, and Ruby was pointing out a little shop on one of the busy streets of the city that wasn't far from Chihiro's little blue house. Ruby looked mostly like Chihiro, what with her long, dark hair and her good figure, except for her style…. She was much less self-conscious, and the way she dressed let you see that. Nothing too revealing though, just tube tops and very short shorts. Ruby had been coming to visit Chihiro every summer since Chihiro moved, and her mother very nicely gave Ruby money to shop for school clothes with Chihiro near the end of the visit. The shop she was pointing to was, of course, a place she wanted to look into for clothes. 

"Oh…. What?" Chihiro said in a confused manner, knowing that she missed at least half of what Ruby was telling her.

"Over there! Look! Let's go in and see what they have!"

"Oh, ok," was Chihiro's reply. She was lost in very deep thought, as she often was, but this time was different. Something around her made her feel like there was some sort of power near her, as if revealed to her as a sign, and she felt like she had seen something from the street before, but somewhere else. Of course she had seen everything there the past times that she shopped for groceries and clothes, but it wasn't that sort of feeling… it was like something was there from when she was a child, but she couldn't figure out when she had been around it, or where it was that she had seen it before. 

Dismissing it from her mind so as to try and have good rest-of-the-summer with Ruby, she fallowed her to the store to try on the clothes. 

She got up and fallowed Ruby, but stopped to throw her ice-cream cup and spoon away. As she turned from the trash can to catch up to Ruby, she suddenly bumped into a man carrying white roses from a shop to his car. He was an older man, probably in his late sixties, and he had a scruffy face, as if he hadn't shaved in a few days, but still, he didn't yet have a beard.

"Oh! I'm very sorry sir! Please excuse me!" Chihiro said while bowing furiously. Then she helped the man pick up his roses, and that power came into her mind again……

"That's ok, think nothing of it," the man said. "My name is Gyukudo. I was just picking up these roses for my daughter. It's her birthday today, and I wanted to give her these along with her other gift."

"My name is Chihiro. Nice to meet you, sir," she said, still bowing. "I'm very sorry if I ruined your daughter's birthday gift!"

"Aw, that's all right. She's only five and won't know the difference anyway."

"Thank you for forgiving me, sir! I have to go now; it was nice meeting you! Bye!"

"G'bye, Chihiro," he replied as Chihiro caught up to Ruby, just as she was entering the shop. It was rather small, but Ruby soon found that it was her favorite store so far, because it had many clothes in her taste. It wasn't too long before she found a shirt she liked to try on, and that's just what she did.

"Well, Chihiro, what do you think? Doesn't it look like it was made from magic, the way it's got the glitter on it like that?" That was exactly what Chihiro thought. The shirt was black, and it had white rose petals on it that were glittery, and in such a position that it looked as if they were blowing in the wind. Suddenly Chihiro didn't know what to do, because weather she liked it or not, that power she had felt twice before was now stronger than ever. It hit her all at once too, so she started not to feel so well…..

"Chihiro? Are you ok?" Ruby was beginning to worry about her, when the store manager came.

"What are you two still doing in here? We are about to close! Get out of here!" he said…… Then it started to make sense…..

_ ".....You shouldn't be here....._

_Get out of here.... NOW. I'll distract them!" _


	2. Talk With Me, Walk With Me

Well here is the second chapter, I hope you all like it. It might not be as good as the first one though………. I was pretty tired when I wrote the first half of it.

"Yeah, yeah! Give us a minute!" Ruby said in frustration. "Chihiro, are you ok? What's wrong?"

Chihiro was now wobbling all over and tripping over nothing but her own two feet. She looked at Ruby and said, "I….. I…. I don't think……" and then she fainted.

When Chihiro woke up, she was in her bedroom and it was very dark out. Ruby was out the window and sitting out on the roof, crying. Chihiro got up and out of bed, but quickly sat back down because she felt dizzy. Then she realized that she had a large bump on her head, and so resolved to call Ruby to her instead. "Ruby, what's wrong?" she said.

"What? Chihiro! You're ok!"

"Hey, no screaming. My head is still in pain"

"Oh sorry….. Chihiro, what happened today at that store? Why did you faint like that? You scared everyone a lot."

"I wasn't feeling well. To be honest, I was overcome by this power that I felt around me…. I will tell you about it, but promise me that you will never speak of it to anybody as long as you live."

"I promise."

"Ok. Here's how it is……." Chihiro told Ruby about her adventure in the Spirit World long ago. "So now, after all these years, I've been getting these feelings that I need to go back there. Like today: I kept seeing these white rose petals wherever I went. That man, and then your shirt…. Then when I blacked out, I remembered that when I first met Haku, he used white rose petals as a spell to distract the spirits so that I would be safe."

"Wow, Chihiro…. I don't know what to say…" Ruby said nervously. She was really concerned about Chihiro now, wondering if that bump on the head had made things worse. But tell me, wouldn't you worry, too? She talked about the inhabitants of the Spirit World, which was an oddity in itself, but what's more is that she seemed so familiar with them. Not once was she at a loss for words, like people often are when they make things up. That did well for Chihiro, but then poor Ruby could only assume that it was true, or that Chihiro had gone mad.

Chihiro saw the doubt in Ruby's expression and said the only thing that she could say to help her case, "Well, seeing is believing. Ruby, if you come with me tonight, I will take you there. But weather you come or not, I am going.

"Chihiro… are you telling the truth? Is there really a Spirit World….? Don't answer that. You're right. Seeing is believing. I will go with you to the Spirit World, Chihiro, but I am concerned. If this isn't true, and you are making it up, then I will have to tell your parents. If you are sick, they should know about it."

"I am glad you will come, Ruby," Chihiro said while she gave Ruby a hug. "Now take one of your bags and pack some extra clothes for us. We won't need food. In fact, food will be useless to us unless it's from the Spirit World. While you do that, I will write a note to my parents." The note read:

Mom and Dad, 

            When we drove here for the first time, we ended up at a deserted theme park. More happened there than you can remember. It's been calling me back, and so I have gone there again and I've taken Ruby with me. Don't worry; I will be perfectly safe there. Probably safer than here. I don't know when I will be back.    

Love,

Chihiro

"Chihiro, I've finished packing," Ruby said, half distracted by something glowing in the closet. "What is that?" she asked, now picking it up.

Chihiro looked at it with very wide eyes. "Give me that! Right now! That is the hair elastic that my friends made for me in the Spirit World! I thought I had lost it! But now, seeing it helps me to remember things more clearly," she said, crying with joy.

At this point, Ruby was convinced. You should have seen the way that the purple hair elastic glowed! Even in the dark, it shone like it was right next to the sun. Only magic could make it do something like that. "Chihiro, just as that makes you remember, it makes me believe. And now, not only do I believe in the Spirit World, but I believe that this is going to be really, really fun."

With a broad smile on her face, Chihiro got up to look out her window. From there, she could see the road that her father had drove along to get them to the long, dark tunnel that lead to the bath house. With seeing it, she turned and said to Ruby, "Come on now, I can see where we need to go. Let's be on our way."

With that, the each got out onto the roof and then climbed down to the ground by means of the gutter going down the side of the house. They went down the big hill until they reached the road that lead to the tunnel. Once they reached the end of the road, which was marked with the two-faced stone, Chihiro stopped. "Ruby, I just thought of something. The last time I was here, it was day-time. I think we should wait to go in until it is morning, then we can go in. Only because the last time, the only appeared to me when it became dark. Not when it was dark already. Through this tunnel, there is a room that I can only describe as looking like a chapel. My memory of it isn't too good. But anyway, we can sleep there tonight."

Ruby nodded, and fallowed Chihiro through the tunnel and to the room. But when they got there, they were not alone…..

_"What.....? A human! You're in trouble. You're the one everyone's looking for!_


	3. The History of Gyukudo

Whahaha! The third chapter has arrived! The History of Gyukudo…. Now THAT doesn't give away the identity of the mystery person…. By the way, if you haven't figured it out yet, the parts in italics are always going to be either a quote from Spirited Away that Chihiro is reminded of by the things and events around her, or they are descriptions of what things are like after a chunk of time has passed. Please review on my story, guys! And again….. GO EASY! It's only my very first story!

"Hello, Chihiro," said the other person who was already in the room. "I knew I would find you here."

"Chihiro, who is he? Do you know him?" asked Ruby.

"My name is Gyukudo, Ruby. Chihiro met me earlier today while she was shopping with you. I don't believe I had introduced myself to you, though."

"Gyukudo, how do you know Ruby's name? And how did you know where to find us? Why were you even looking for us?" Chihiro interrogated.

"Well now, I have a long story to tell, which should answer all of your questions. First, I will start out by telling you who I am beyond my name."

As Gyukudo spoke, Chihiro and Ruby made beds for themselves, since it was going to take a while.

"Yes, make yourselves comfortable, that's fine. As I was saying, to understand who I am, you should first know this: There is more to the Spirit World than the area that lies beyond this room. There are many regions of it that each have rulers who are in charge. Yubaba, for example, is not only the owner of the bath house, but she is also the ruler of the region that you are familiar with, Chihiro. But anyway, each ruler must report to a single, higher being who is, in short, the king of the Spirit World. That being is me. I have the ability to do whatever I want. I can pass from the Spirit World to the human world as I please. I could even turn back time if I wanted to. You see, I can do **anything**."

There was a long silence. You wouldn't say anything either if somebody had just told you they were an almighty god……

"But sir, what does that have to do with what we wanted to know?" asked Ruby in a shaky voice. She was quite nervous, being with a… well… a god. Not as nervous as Chihiro though, who couldn't speak at all.

"Well to answer your first question, Ruby, I know your name because I know everybody's name. I'm almighty, remember?" he said, adding the last bit with a chuckle. "As for your second question, I knew you would be here because I planted the idea to come into Chihiro's head. I was there in town with the white roses on purpose, and that was all I had to do. In fact, I don't have a five-year-old daughter. I made her up as an alibi. I just needed to be there in town with the roses, and then my work was done. Everything else affected Chihiro the way it did because she could feel my magic, and that made her recall events from the past."

Regaining her voice, Chihiro said, "Did you have me come here because you needed to tell me something about what happened the last time I went to the Spirit World?"

"Yes, which brings me to your third question. I need to tell you something regarding Zeniiba's golden seal, and why Haku stole it from her. You see, the reason that Haku stole the seal in the first place is because it is a part of a collection of seven items. When all of the items are collected and assembled, they create a very powerful magic, even more powerful than mine. However, if anybody had even one of the items, then they could still have the magic from it, even though it would not be as powerful. I had Haku try to get the seal for me because there are others after it, known as the Xovio Cartel. (-------A/N- ok…. I would like to point out here that Xovio is not a word, or any name for that matter, that I have ever heard of. I made it up :P. Cartel, on the other hand, IS a word. If you wanna know what it means, look it up.-------) The Xovio Cartel is a group of spirits that only want to collect magic so they can do evil."

"But why not just use your magic to stop them from collecting some of their own?" Chihiro asked.

"Well when I said that I could do anything, that was true. In the very early years of the Spirit World, I felt that there should be balance in it. So, since I could do anything, I gave up my power that I would have used to destroy evil. Otherwise, there would be no heroes in our lives, and many people would not have role models. In addition to that though, I also made a promise to myself that I would not sweat the little things, such as you coming here before, Chihiro, because I knew you could deal with it on your own. But anyway, because of my lack of the ability to stop the Xovio Cartel, I decided that I had to get somebody trustworthy to do it for me. Chihiro, you still remember falling into the Kohaku River, and then being rescued by Haku when he was the river's spirit, right? Well, when I saw Haku save you like that, I knew that he would fit the part. So, I gave Haku a human and dragon form so that he could help me. With that, I also ordered Yubaba to give him his mission, and to make sure that he accomplished it while being under her rule. Do you two understand this so far?"

Ruby just nodded but Chihiro asked, "If it was Haku's job to get the seal from Zeniiba, why did Zeniiba get angry with him?"

"Well you see, I had not let Zeniiba know that I was sending Haku to her, so she did not know why he had taken her seal. But Haku couldn't tell her what was going on either because he was in his dragon form and could not take the time to turn to a human and explain himself, since Yubaba had told him to hurry. I'm sorry to say, Chihiro, but you being here the last time had made Yubaba very impatient, and she took it out on everybody else. But back to what I was saying before, while Haku was under Yubaba's rule, he not only had to get the seal, but he had to get all the other six items as well, which he managed to do. However, with Zeniiba's seal being the last item left, I fear that the Xovio Cartel may start a war with this region of the Spirit World. Chihiro, I knew before that you are very capable of doing what needs to be done. And what needs to be done now is that we need to defend this region. With that, I am going to trust each of you with a few of the six items that Haku has retrieved. There would be seven, if I had told Zeniiba about the circumstances……" With saying this, Gyukudo handed Chihiro and Ruby each their own item. The one he gave Ruby was a small key. Ruby could tell that it was old because of the way it was shaped: It had a loop at the end, a long, skinny middle, and two teeth at the other end. The item that Chihiro received was a small wooden flute carved into the shape of a dragon with a long string at the end of it that represented the tail. "Now Ruby, your item has magic that would be used to attack, so you may choose one of these two items for defensive magic," and with that, Gyukudo held out his hand, and in it was an emerald and a piece of amethyst. 

"Which one should I choose?" asked Ruby.

"Whichever one you think should belong to you."

"Well……," Ruby closed her eyes, and picked one up at random. She had taken the amethyst. "What kind of power does it have?"

"You will know soon enough. But first, it is Chihiro's turn. Chihiro, your item has defensive magic, so you may choose one that may be used to attack." And holding out his hand once more, he revealed a ruby and a sapphire. Chihiro didn't ask which one to pick, because she knew her answer would be the same that Ruby got, so she picked up the ruby that Gyukudo had and decided to settle with that.

"Well now that you know everything you need to know, and you have what I needed to give you, I will leave you two so you may sleep until you have a chance to cross over to the Spirit World." Nodding towards a window, Gyukudo pointed out that the sun was already rising. "I will send somebody to awaken you two when the time comes. When they get here, you both must go outside and try using your items. That way you will know how to use them. I would tell you what they do myself, but I believe that people can learn better by doing rather than by hearing. Now go to sleep until my messenger comes for you."

_"Kamagii lit the boiler already....? How long was I asleep?"  _      


	4. The Magic Within

Mraawr :3 But yeah… *phew* chapter three was pretty long…. Well for me, that is. And sorry it took so long to get up…… I had a bit 'o trouble thinking of what all seven items would be. Anyway, here's the fourth chapter for you :) hope ya like it ;)   Er…… for those of you who were confused on how to pronounce Xovio, it would be said like zo-vee-oh. At least that's what I think. Wait, no…. I made it up! You read it like I say you should!

_After about eight hours of sleep, it had come close to nightfall. Gyukudo's messenger would awake the two girls shortly, and then maybe stick around for a while after._

"Ah, ah."

"Mmm…. What?" 

"Ah, ah."

Ruby rolled over to see what was nudging her, and she nearly wet herself. "AH!" was all she could say, and she got herself out of bed and away from the strange intruder as fast as she could.

Hearing Ruby's scream, Chihiro sat up to see what was going on. Then she saw who Gyukudo had sent to wake them up. 

"No-Face! I'm so happy to see you! How have you been all this time? Are you still living with Zeniiba?"

"Ah. Ah." …..As you should know, No-Face isn't a very big talker. The only reason that he could speak before was because he swallowed that frog, so he could use the frog's voice. But still, Chihiro could tell what he was trying to say from the big grin on his face.

"Oh No-Face I'm so happy to see you and I am SO happy that you-….. Ruby, what's wrong?"

"Chihiro….. What IS that???"

"Ruby! This is No-Face! Don't you remember him from when I told you about the last time I came here? You can be afraid, just don't be so rude! He has feelings too, you know."

"Oh…… I'm sorry, please forgive me," Ruby said, becoming a little less afraid.

"Ah, ah."

"Well Ruby, Gyukudo told us that when we woke up we would have to go outside to use our items for the first time. So, let's go! No-Face, you are welcome to stay with us."

"Ah, ah," he said happily.

Chihiro lead Ruby and No-Face outside to the big field that Chihiro had crossed the last time she visited. From where they were, they could see the bath house and the rest of that region. As they found an area where they would have the most space possible, Chihiro absent-mindedly held her whistle by the wooden part like a handle and began spinning the string at the end. Suddenly, it started to spin violently and it made a screeching noise like nails across a chalk board and then it started to look solid. In fact…. That's what is was. It had turned into a shield. It was pretty big, too. It was as tall as Chihiro and twice as wide as the width of her shoulders. Chihiro stood where she was, silent and still.

"Wow…. I wonder what it does when I blow the whistle," she said in astonishment. She rotated the whistle in her hand almost instinctively, and it turned back to normal. She was just about to blow into it when Ruby stopped her.

"Wait! I want to see what mine does first!" she said, thrusting the key towards Chihiro to remind her that she still had it. She must have thrust it too hard though, because that made her lose her balance along with her grip on the key. She managed to snatch it back out of thin air before it hit the ground, and she tossed it back up as if to say, "In your face, gravity." You might have guessed already, but the moment it hit her hand again, the key grew into a long sword with barbed edges. Holding the sword by the handle (with a very strong grip; she could not believe what was happening!), Ruby felt that it had a small socket at the base of the blade. It looked like it would fit a small stone, so Ruby tried to put her amethyst into it. Once it was in, the sword shuddered and a dark purple smoke surrounded it, and looked as though it attached itself to the blade, which now had the color of the smoke.

"Give it a swing," Chihiro suggested, expecting that she knew what would happen.

Ruby did, and the sword practically guided her stroke. She practiced with it a few moments, and then something gave her an idea. Every time Ruby would swing it in a certain direction, it would emit a large black circle that was clearly caused by the amethyst, which Gyukudo had said was made of defensive magic. Knowing this, she said to Chihiro, "Toss a rock my way, I need to try something." Chihiro did, and Ruby made a swift movement with the sword, causing a black circle to appear once again. When the rock hit the circle, it became swallowed up in darkness through the hole, dropping out of existence.

"Now how do I make this turn back into a key?" Ruby asked aloud. After a while of trying, she still had not figured it out, and gave up, thinking that it would come to her sooner or later.

"My turn!" After seeing what Ruby had done, Chihiro started to look for a space to put her ruby, which was very tiny, if I never mentioned before. Then she noticed that one eye on the face of the dragon-shaped whistle curved in. Chihiro knew what it was for, and she put her ruby into the indentation. Instantly, a red smoke appeared around it and the whistle gained a reddish tint to it. Chihiro made it go back into a shield and began to fiddle with it so she might be able to see how to attack with it. She soon found out that when she squeezed the actual whistle (which acted like a handle for the shield), a blast of fire would burst from the center of the shield. Chihiro was not ready for the blast, and it made her fall onto the ground. When she fell, the shield got shorter at the bottom so that it would not hit the ground. Chihiro got herself up and began moving it up and down. The shield never hit the ground. She then released the shield back to its whistle form.

"Well, shall I blow into it and see what happens?" she asked Ruby and No-Face. 

They both nodded, so Chihiro proceeded to blow into it. Words cannot describe the sound it made. It was beautiful. Without any effort at all, the whistle played a melody that made everything seem so perfect in life. At that point, life **was**_ perfect for Chihiro pretty much, because there was a pleasant breeze and then a flash in the sky. The wind started to pick up, but it wasn't violent, it was more like a feeling of having wings. More flashes in the sky appeared, each time getting closer to the ground. With one last flash of light, a great white dragon landed in front of the three of them. Once it landed, it changed into a human form._

"Haku!" Chihiro exclaimed. She was so overcome with joy that she burst into tears as she ran into Haku's arms.

"Hello Chihiro," he replied warmly. They both just stood there for a long time, hugging and rocking back and forth in each others arms. Finally, Chihiro couldn't stand it anymore. She lifted her head up and gave Haku a kiss. Right on the lips. 

Haku was very embarrassed, but only because he had never kissed anyone before, because he had only been a spirit for most of his existence. He pulled away from Chihiro, but she understood why.

"Chihiro, aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" Ruby asked menacingly. She wanted to know who this valiant young man was. Ruby thought that she and Haku would be good friends, and she wanted to know at least **one** person in this strange place. 

"Oh I'm sorry. Ruby, this is Haku. He is the one who helped me rescue my parents and get back home the last time I was here."

"Nice to meet you." And she meant that. Ruby could see why Chihiro loved him so much right when she saw him.

"Same to you, Ruby." And turning to No-Face he said, "Zeniiba wanted me to tell you that she needs your help with some chores around the house. And I want to thank you for watching over Chihiro and her friend." Haku was so blown away by seeing Chihiro again that he couldn't concentrate on anything else, and he had already forgotten Ruby's name.

"Ah, ah," replied No-Face. And with that, he disappeared.

"Haku, will we need to get jobs again so that we can stay here?" Chihiro asked.

"Yes. But first, hold on to these berries. We aren't in the Spirit World yet, but when we get there you will need to eat some food from it, or you will disappear. I got these from a bush on the way from Zeniiba's house after I got her message for No-Face, so they will be fine for you to eat."

"Oh, man. This sword gets really heavy after a while!" said Ruby. She had been holding it up the entire time, but now she decided to rest the tip on the ground and hold it upright herself, which would take much less effort. As the tip of the sword hit the ground, it immediately shrank down to the key it began as.

"Huh. What d'ya know," she said, placing it in her pocket without another word.

"Well Chihiro, I think that it's about time to go visit Kamagii again. Wouldn't you agree?" Haku asked.

"I most certainly would," was Chihiro's reply. She was greatly looking forward to seeing everybody again, and chances are that going to Kamagii would bring them to Rin, or at least bring Rin to them when she served Kamagii his meal.

"Ok girls, fallow me," Haku said as he lead them towards the bath house. As they walked, Chihiro ran up to Haku and held his hand. Haku just smiled the rest of the way until they got to the bridge.

"Ok girls, hold your breath!"

_"You have to hold your breath while we cross the bridge. Even the tiniest breath could break the spell and then everyone will see you."_   

Well, that's all for chapter 4! I know! You want more! *glares at Lee, Erin and Jenny* But patience! I would also like to take this opportunity to give a big thank-you to Erin. If she didn't tell me to bring back Gyukudo later in the story, it would have no plot -_-`  


	5. Like it Was a Routine

Chapter 5! Yay! Sorry it seemed to take so long for those of you incredibly anxious to read the rest :P  Got some things in here too that I found the names of in other fac-fics, so a thank-you to the authors of them :) Enjoy!

"Haku, do we really have to do that? Everybody here knows me already," Chihiro said.

"Well, I suppose you don't. But I'm worried about what they would think of Ruby."

"Why would I have to hold my breath?" Ruby asked.

"Because when we cross the bridge, we don't want anybody to see you until you have a job and can stay here freely, and holding your breath would complete the spell that I can put on you to keep you invisible," Haku explained.

"Ruby, now that I think of it, I agree with Haku that you should hold your breath. Some of the people here are a little aggressive, and it would be for the best. I will hold my breath too if you don't want to do it alone," Chihiro offered.

"Let's go then," Haku said. 

"Wait! What's happening to me?" Ruby asked. "I'm disappearing!"

"Oh that's right! Just eat those berries that I gave you before. You'll be fine."

Chihiro and Ruby both did what they were told, and then took deep breaths and held them. As they crossed the bridge, Chihiro realized why Haku wanted her to hold her breath. That sweet boy. He remembered the last time and how Chihiro had clung to him while they crossed the bridge before. Just to make him happy, she held onto his arm like she did the last time, a smile spread across both of their faces, and Haku blushed. Ruby was holding onto Chihiro's hand so they wouldn't get separated, and they all continued across the bridge and towards the bath house. Instead of going into it though, Haku lead Ruby and Chihiro to some bushes to hide in while he told them the plan.

"Ok, now do you remember the way to get to the boiler room Chihiro? That's where we're going. I will let you lead the way this time to see if you can remember," he said with a sideways glance at her.

"I remember. We have to go out through the back gate and then down the long staircase," she said with a hint of nervousness in her voice. She dreaded going on those stairs again… The last time she tried that, she ended up charging strait into a wall.

"That's right Chihiro. I'm surprised you can recall it after so long."

With that, Chihiro lead the way through the gate and to the staircase. Ruby went down the stairs in front because thus far she had been afraid of everything in that world but the rickety old staircase, and now was the time for her to show her braver side. Chihiro, more afraid than ever, went behind Ruby. Haku went last, that clever little schemer. He heard the fear in Chihiro's voice when she recited the directions to the boiler room, so he descended the stairs behind her on purpose. He wanted to make her feel safer by holding onto her shoulder while they went down, and it worked.

The three of them reached the bottom of the stairs in one piece, or rather, three pieces, and entered the boiler room. As soon as they entered it they could hear the loud and steady clanging of the boiler, and the sounds of Kamagii grinding herbs into a mix for the bath tokens that had come to him. As they got closer, Chihiro saw the susuwatari busy at work. She had a lot of respect for the little soot balls. She remembered when she had helped one carry a chunk of coal into the furnace, and she also remembered how heavy the coal was. Kamagii noticed Chihiro, Haku and Ruby when they walked in, and after finishing with the bath tokens, he was the first to speak.

"Well, well. I knew that you and Haku had made a promise to see each other again, but I never thought that you would ever bother to come and see me while you were at it," he said holding out his arms to hug her. Chihiro went to him and was about to reach up to his working area when two more bath tokens came down. Kamagii hugged her anyway, ignoring them, and made it clear that they were more important this time.

"Kamagii, it's nice to see you again," Chihiro told him. "I brought my friend with me this time. Her name is Ruby; she's the one over there marveling at the susuwatari." And indeed she was. They are very fun to watch, actually. Running around with their bits of coal, and then jumping at the furnace to put the coal in, only to get blown back by the hot air and start all over.

"Nice to meet you Ruby."

"Yeah……," Ruby replied, distracted by the susuwatari. "Oh, sorry. Nice to meet you Kamagii. What are these little guys that feed the furnace for you?"

"They are called susuwatari. They used to be balls of soot, but I put a spell on them so that they could work for me." Then turning to Chihiro, he asked, "Where are you headed to after visiting with me?"

"We were going to stay here and wait for Rin to come, and then after we saw her, I was going to bring Ruby with me to get a job from Yubaba."

"Well do you have something that will remind you of your name? Yubaba will probably try to steal it from you again. She hasn't changed a bit."

"Don't worry about it Kamagii, I've already found something for them," Haku said. "I was going to wait until later, but now that we are on the subject I will give them to you now." Haku reached into his pocket and took out a bracelet. It was blue, and it had pink letters on it that said Chihiro's name. "I wove this together for you right after you left, even though I didn't know when I would be able to give it to you…."

"Oh, Haku, you made this? It's gorgeous!"

"Thank you," he said, blushing. "Ruby, I didn't know that you were going to come with Chihiro, but then Gyukudo told me so I found this," he said, reaching into his other pocket. It was a small ruby attached to a string. Ruby thanked Haku, and then put it on as a necklace. 

Just then, a small door on the opposite side of the room opened, and Rin came out. She was carrying a tray of food for Kamagii and a basket of kompeitou for the susuwatari, the same as she did years ago. She handed the food to Kamagii, and as she fed the susuwatari, she was silent. She didn't even notice Chihiro and the rest of them until a susuwatari offered one of it's kompeitou to Chihiro, who thankfully turned down the star-shaped candy.

Chihiro just sat there, waiting for Rin to see her.

Rin looked up from what she was doing and saw Chihiro and the others, then resumed with her job. Suddenly she stopped dead. It didn't hit her before, but now she realized that it was Chihiro who spoke to her. She looked up again, dropped everything, charged Chihiro's way and began squeezing her to death, all while showing off a smile that kept getting bigger and bigger.

"Chihiro! I can't believe it's you! I'm so happy to see you!" She looked Chihiro up and down to see what she had changed to after so long. "Wow, your looking a lot older. It's been six years………….. So your sixteen, right? You've really grown. Are you still a clumsy dope?" she asked with a wink.

"No, Rin. But you probably are," Chihiro retorted before sticking out her tongue. 

"Come over here and tell me how you've been." Rin pulled Chihiro to a corner of the room where nobody else could hear then talking. Chihiro told her everything about how she was back home, and what had happened so far while she had been in the Spirit World.

Meanwhile, Kamagii spoke with Haku and Ruby about other matters. "How are you taking all of this, Ruby? Are you having a good time here?" he asked.

"Yes, it's been a very refreshing change from the human world so far," she answered.

"Ruby," Haku began, "I want to apologize if you have been feeling like a third wheel. It's just been so long, and I've missed Chihiro so much….."

"It's ok, Haku, don't worry. I'm just happy that you and Chihiro are here. If I were here on my own, I don't know what I would do. So don't be sorry, I don't mind."

"Thank you for understanding."

There was a very long and uncomfortable silence after that.

A few minutes later and still talking, Rin and Chihiro came back to the others. 

"Ruby, let's go. I'm taking you and Chihiro to Yubaba so you can get a job. Haku," Rin said, turning to him, "Yubaba wanted me to send you to her; she wants to talk to you before I get to her with the girls. You better take the fast lane, if you know what I mean."

"Right." With that, he changed to his dragon form and flew off.

 "I'll come back later and get your bowls, Kamagii." Rin motioned for Chihiro and Ruby to fallow, and they went through the small door and into the elevator. 

"Ruby, there are a few things you should know about Yubaba before you waltz into her office and ask for work. She has a very short temper and low tolerance for small talk. But when she finally _does give you a job, she will give you a new name, and you have to use it as long as you are here. That's why Haku gave you and Chihiro a thing with your names on it. Yubaba gets better control over you when you forget your name." She paused as they reached the highest floor that the elevator would take them to. She thought that she might have to try and hide Ruby, but then thought that nobody would notice her with Chihiro back, so she lead them to the next elevator they would take. "So anyway, make sure that you always wear that ruby on your neck so it can remind you of your name. And don't talk back to Yubaba, or she could get really angry or blame you for waking up the baby even though she is always the one who does. What with her yelling and slamming her fist on her desk when she gives an order. And then there are those discolored heads she's got jumping around her office………" They had reached the top floor where Yubaba's office was. _

"Rin, are you coming with us?" Chihiro asked.

"No way am I risking _my_ life. This is your problem," she said. "Good luck."

"Bye," Chihiro said as she waved to Rin.

"Thanks for the advice." Ruby had just enough time to thank her before the elevator door separated them from Rin.

As Chihiro walked with Ruby fallowing close behind, they soon reached the tall doors that lead to Yubaba's office. Chihiro was about to just open the door and keep walking, but then she remembered the last time. With her hand nearly to the door knob, she stopped and looked down. She could see that little head attached to the door, and then she smirked. She remembered how it had scolded her for not knocking before, and she also remembered that it used to be at eye level with her. 

But that was back when she would have been afraid. So, she knocked.

"Well, Chihiro, I see that you have found some sense over the years," it began. "Come in."

_"I said **come in."**_

I know her name is Lin in English, but in the movies original language it's Rin. So there.


	6. BAM!

Chapter 6 is here! HOORAY! *throws confetti* I was thinking of when I had career day while I was writing this, and I remembered my friend wants to be a chef, or at least she wanted to be in the cooking class for that day. So, most of this is a kitchen thing. Another thing: I just learned No-Face's real name, so that's why I'm using it from now on and I didn't before. Btw…… the title "BAM" of this chapter is meant to be a quote from the chef, Emeril. He always says that when he cooks.

Chihiro and Ruby suddenly felt like they were being pulled by their shirts. The door in front of them whipped open, then another, then another, and so on with about seven other doors. A magical force pulled them through the open doorways, and then tugged them around a sharp corner. It tossed them onto the ground, and when they came back to their senses they saw that they were in Yubaba's office already. Chihiro got up and fixed herself, then waited until Yubaba would listen. Ruby on the other hand, was toiling with those scary little heads that were jumping around her. Yubaba waved a weary hand and the heads stacked themselves up on each other near her desk. It was then that Chihiro noticed Haku sitting against the wall behind Yubaba's desk. As she finished working, Yubaba looked up ant Chihiro and Ruby.

"Nice to see you again Chihiro. Haku tells me that you and Ruby are looking for jobs here. You can have the same that you did last time. Here are your contracts," she said as she had two pieces of paper float towards them. They both signed their names onto their contracts, which were soon taken from them. Yubaba didn't even bother to rearrange Chihiro's name.

"Chihiro, your new name will be Sen, just like before. But you…….," she said, turning to Ruby and studying her signature, "I think I will call you….." She paused to rearrange the writing on the contract. "You new name is Naomi. Do you understand? Answer me."

"Yes, ma'am. I understand."

"Now go on Haku, take these girls to—"

"Yubaba," Chihiro interrupted, "Don't you have anything else to say to me? Don't you think that I deserve more of a welcome or something?" Chihiro had never really liked Yubaba, but she never thought that she was so heartless.

"Well, I didn't think that you would want to hear more from me. But to be honest, you do sound more courageous and responsible from what Haku tells me. And you look better than before. Happy now?"

"Yes," Chihiro said somewhat sarcastically. She would not have been satisfied if someone else had said that, but since it was Yubaba, she didn't expect much more.

"Now as I was saying, Haku you have to take these girls to see Rin again. Get them to work until Gyukudo tells me what they have to do."

"Ok. Come on, I think Rin is in the kitchen downstairs. She got a promotion you know; now half of her hours are there and she spends less time cleaning the tubs," Haku told them as they walked out of Yubaba's office. The long hallway of doors was still wide open, and they soon reached the elevator to go to the kitchen and meet Rin.

When they got there, it was very busy. Many workers were preparing all sorts of dishes for guests; but luckily, Rin was working near the doorway, so it wasn't too hard to find her in the crowd. 

"Hey guys," she said before the rest of them could even open their mouths. "You wanna see what it's like to cook for a spirit? I could use some help."

"That would be fine, Rin. They signed their contracts in Yubaba's office and I brought them here to help you work. But shouldn't you get them their uniforms first? I can step in for you while you do that," Haku offered.

"Oh that's right, thanks for reminding me. But first, Chihiro I know that you are Sen now, but what's your new name Ruby?"

"It's Naomi."

"Wow you're lucky. I always wanted that name, but I'm stuck with Rin. Ok then, let's go get you two some uniforms," Rin said as she began to walk out the door. "And Haku," she shouted over her shoulder, "I was just making some lasagnas. Some big guest is super hungry, and practically the entire staff has to make at least four of five. We'll be back down soon to help."

Haku grimaced. He wondered if it was Kaonashi (No-Face). Not that he didn't like the guy, but him being in the bath house never really did any good for anybody.

As they walked through the hall on their way to the living quarters of the bath house, Sen was thinking about the same thing and asked, "Rin, is the guest Kaonashi again? I really was hoping that this wouldn't have to happen while I was here."

"Don't worry, it's just a river spirit. I think it's the same one that you helped out before when he looked like a stink spirit and we had to give him a bath. When I set him up with a tub he said something about a gift he gave one of the workers here for some reason. But in any case, he wont tear the place down. Don't worry."

They came into a room where on the floor were many sleeping mats, and on one side was a sliding window that opened up to a small balcony that overlooked the water. Sen saw blood stains on the walls, and recognized the room to be the same one as many years ago; it was the one that she had slept in, and the one that Haku took shelter in from the paper minions that Zeniiba had sent after him. Rin crossed the room, stepping on everything, and walked over to a small storage space where she began searching for some clothes that would fit Sen and Naomi.

"Let's see….. You both look about the same size as I am….," Rin said as she dug through the piles of clothes. "Here we go. Sen, there's a shirt and some pants for you…… and Naomi……… aha. Here are some more. Now…….," she said, looking for aprons for them, "Ok, Here. Now go change and meet me back down in the kitchen. I'm gonna go start helping Haku."

"Ok," they said. After they finished putting on their new clothes, they went back down into the kitchen. There they found that Rin and Haku had just finished washing the pans that they would cook the lasagnas in. Haku saw them coming and ran over to them.

"Rin wants you two to make the strips of pasta. There is a machine over there next to where Rin and I will be cooking, and all the ingredients with the recipe are next to it. "Rin is going to cook the sausage, and I'm going to make the sauce for it. It will go a lot faster with all of us making something for it at the same time."

"How many strips of pasta should we make?" Naomi asked.

"Just keep on making as many as you can. Rin and I will take them as we need them."

"Right," she said as she joined Sen at the pasta maker. She looked to see if they had everything; there were lots of eggs, plenty of flour and water, and a few bowls to mix everything together in. Sen was already scooping flour into the bowl, so Naomi began cracking eggs into it.

Behind them and at a different table, Haku and Rin were busy cooking. 

"So Rin," Sen began, "when did Yubaba give you a promotion to the kitchen?"

"Not long after you left, actually. She did it because I got too lazy with the tubs. So I guess you wouldn't really call it a promotion, since I still do the tubs a little."

They continued cooking, and after finishing three lasagnas, the pasta maker got jammed as Naomi was feeding it the dough. Sen pulled on the crank to try and make it budge, but her hand slipped and she lost her balance, causing her to stumble backwards. She put her hand out to keep herself up, and she hit a ladle next to Haku that acted like a catapult and flung tomato sauce all over him. Sen didn't know what to do, so she just stood there with her mouth open, smiling. Everyone else within a seven foot radius of the incident did the same, including Haku.  After a while, he turned to Sen, and started laughing. Then he gave her a hug; partly to get her dirty too, and partly because he never really got to have fun like that since Sen had been there the last time.

So, with both of them just standing there with food on them, Naomi couldn't help but laugh too. Rin threw sausage at her to see if she would laugh after that, but it just made her laugh harder. So Naomi threw a wet noodle back at her. Soon everybody was tossing food at each other. Meanwhile, Haku was chasing Sen around the kitchen; he had smeared a handful of every food he could find onto his shirt, and he was trying to get it onto Sen by giving her another hug.

Yubaba was out in the lobby of the bath house, talking to the river spirit who was eating all the lasagna and other food that was presented to him.

Hearing the noise from the kitchen, she said, "Excuse me sir, I have to attend to another matter. I will tell the staff to bring more food for you also." With that, she headed towards the kitchen.

When she opened the door, she was greeted by Sen running in her direction, fallowed by Haku. Sen turned in time not to run into Yubaba, but Haku slipped and he ended up getting food on Yubaba instead of Sen.

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE????? HAKU!" Yubaba called, enraged that Haku had not been more responsible. "Haku, I expect better from you! Now tell me what happened!"

"There was a food fight!" yelled a nondescript worker, who Yubaba promptly turned into a toad. 

"Well, I will have to take that for an answer. It probably the best one I can get. Sen, the river spirit wants a word with you."

As Sen turned to go to the river spirit, Haku gave her that hug he wanted to give her. So practically dripping with food, Sen went out to meet the river spirit.

_"Chow time! What's going on? Are you guys fighting **again**?"_


	7. Bunzo Raikatuji

:B Here's chapter 7. Sorry it took so long to get such a short chapter, but that poem…. That took a while. So yeah……

"Nice to see you again, Sen. How are you?" the river spirit asked. Sen could tell that he was holding in his laughter the best that he could.

"Good evening sir, I'm doing fine. Yubaba told me that you wanted to see me," Sen replied as she slipped on a noodle that fell off of her head.

"Well I came here because I had heard that you came back and were helping Gyukudo with the fight against the Xovio Cartel. I wanted to let you know that my help and advice is always available to you if you need it, and I wanted to you know my real name, which is Bunzo Raikatuji. I also came here for some food and a bath, but having had those by now, I sadly have no more reason to stay."

Standing up and still grasping her head in pain, Sen said, "You want to stay longer, but you don't have any reason to? Is that what you mean?"

"Yes. I would watch some live entertainment, but I have not seen any here yet. So I think I should be on my way, since I would be a bother to be here without pay."

"Don't be silly. We can entertain you, Mr. Raikatuji," Haku announced, getting up onto a clear table. "Sen, put those other tables together so that they make a stage," he said, pointing to some unused tables in a corner. "You guys help too."

"Haku, what are you doing?! What has come over you???" Yubaba asked in a fit of rage. It was true though; Haku was being rather immature.

"I'm just making Mr. Raikatuji feel more welcome," he said grinning. Yubaba was the only one not in a good mood, but he wasn't going to stop having fun just because of that.

"Splendid! What sort of show are you planning? Singing? Acting? Dancing?" asked Mr. Raikatuji.

"Whatever you want, sir," Rin replied. "Unless you were already thinking of something, Haku." As she finished speaking, the tables were all in place, and she climbed onto them. So did Sen and Naomi. Every one of them was dripping with food.

"Stop this foolishness now! I forbid you to do this!" Yubaba shouted. Then, having been presented with a fistful of gold from Mr. Raikatuji, she sat down in a chair to enjoy the show. She then let the other workers pause to see it too, and they all came over to watch.

"Well I wanted to start off with a poem. I've already thought of one that I know, but I could make up a different one on the spot to make it more interesting," Haku said.

"Make one up!" shouted a member of the audience.

"Alright then," he said, stepping forward and raising his voice so that everyone could hear.

"They came to find a reason to come,

Which may seem pointless in the eyes of some.

But when I see it from this point of view,

I can understand it, you probably could too.

They were found by a man who had some things to give,

But it wasn't their reason, so the man they did forgive.

They went to the boiler room to meet some friends;

One big and many small,

But that was all that found in the room;

That was all, that was all, that was all.

And they climbed and climbed up to the very top floor,

Where they found some jobs, but nothing more.

They ventured into the kitchen that was through the lobby,

Where they found themselves a brand new hobby:

Starch, water, eggs and flour:

To mix and press these had taken almost an hour.

But the finished product came to be noodles, of all things,

Which were meant for lasagnas that were fit enough for kings.

And in dirtying the kitchen and risking the charge of treason,

I hope at least one of them has found their reason."

He paused, then added,

"I have found mine,

And I hold her dear 'till the end of time."

Sen wanted to cry. She knew, or at least thought, that Haku wanted to be the purpose for her being there. He wanted to let her know that he was trying to be a good enough reason for Sen going out of her way to visit the Spirit World again.

Meanwhile, the audience gave a long and loud round of applause as Haku bowed. His poem had even made Yubaba smile. 

Mr. Raikatuji had stood up at that point, and he said, "Marvelous! Will there be more? I simply LOVED that one. You are very talented, Haku, to make something up like that on the spot."

"I have very good inspiration," Haku replied gratefully. "Well if you have any requests, then we can arrange another performance of some kind."

"Can any of you sing? I should like to hear some music while speak with Yubaba, and perhaps have another lasagna…….."

"We can play some music; there is no need to trouble them for it," Yubaba offered.

As a song began to play in the background, Sen, Naomi, Rin, and Haku were dismissed from their stage. 

Still filthy, Haku said to the others, "I think I'll go wash up now." With that, he gave Sen a kiss on the forehead, staining her skin with sauce, and left.

"We should go and take baths too. Come with me and I will get you two set for one," Rin said to Sen and Naomi. 

They fallowed her up to the sleeping room where they first got their uniforms and waited as she found some towels.

"The next room over is the room where the workers wash up. Come on and I'll show you how to work the faucets."

_After Sen and Naomi finished, they went back downstairs where Rin, who had finished before them, and Haku were cleaning the kitchen. Since they had been involved in making the mess too, they started helping._

"I never got a chance to tell you Haku, but I loved your poem," Sen said casually as she gave him a brief hug.

"Your hair smells nice," he replied, blushing. Then he gave Sen the mop that he was holding and got another one. Gradually, but very conspicuously, Naomi worked her way towards Sen so that she could talk to her.

"Sen, was Haku always so………"

"Affectionate? Immature? No, but even still, I like him the way he is. Even if he did get a bit childish over the years, it seems to make him be more spontaneous and more eager to make me happy."

"Well I was just wondering. I just noticed that most of the things here are exactly what you described them to look and act like, except for him. I don't even know how you could bare to come back home the first time. It's so wonderful and different here……… Sen? What did I say?"

Sen started looking very glum at that point. She had never thought about going back home before. And after everything that Haku had done for her, how could she leave him? With everything rushing into her mind at once, she started not to feel so well.

"Sen, what's wrong? You don't look so good. Go to bed, the rest of us will finish cleaning," Rin said.

Sen lie in bed in a peaceful slumber deep into the night, when a thud woke her up. She looked around and saw that everybody in the room was still asleep, but the sliding door to the balcony was open. She could make out the shape of a person standing out in the moonlight.

"Good-night Sen," the shadow said to her. Then it moved, causing her to lose focus on it and it disappeared.


	8. Something Stronger Than a Diamond

Mhmm. So this is chapter 8. PLEASE REVIEW!!! Lol.

It was pretty early in the morning, maybe around 6:00, when Sen woke up from hearing a strange noise. She looked around to see that the sliding door was still open. Outside on the balcony was a great white dragon, who Sen recognized to be Haku. She heard the noise again, but this time she knew what it was. It was Haku, and he was snoring; Silly him. She got up to walk over to him, taking care not to step on anyone still sleeping, and sat down by his side.

"Wake up, Haku."

He looked at her with his big green eyes, stretched out, and lowered his head, as if he wanted to bring Sen somewhere on his back. So she got on, and they took off. As Sen clung to his thick, soft fur, they raced through the sky and up into the clouds. She didn't know where they were going, but she didn't care. All she could think about was Haku. With her head against his neck, she could hear him breathing, despite the wind whipping loudly in her ears. Even though she wasn't afraid, and even though she would trust Haku with her life, she clung tighter and smiled.

Sen pulled herself up closer to Haku's head so that he could hear her, and she asked, "Haku, was that you last night?"

Obviously, being in his dragon form, he was in no position to give a yes or no, but his smile was a good enough answer. Sen rested her head between his horns while she scratched him under the chin, as if he were a cat. His fur was unbelievably soft. 

Sen closed her eyes, and said, "I love you so much," and she meant it with all her heart.

"I love you too," she heard. She was surprised though. Haku was in his dragon shape, so how could he talk to her? But the answer was clear. He spoke with his heart and feelings, but he was afraid to before, fearing that Sen may not have felt the same way. He must have wanted to wait until he knew for sure how Sen felt. For a long time after that, they just kept on flying, with their love growing stronger and stronger. The scenery below was very beautiful; there were thick blotches of trees, and occasionally there would be a clearing: one of which had some trees in the center of it arranged in a very odd way. Somewhere along the line, Haku turned and started going back the way they had come.

"Where are we going now?"

"Back to the bath house. I brought you out here to…….. Well, just look."

Sen looked down at the ground to see that the trees in the clearing that she had seen before were arranged to form words that were upside-down to her before, but now she could see that they said, "Tell me, have you found yours yet?" It needed no explanation.

"I _have _found mine, and I hold him dear 'til the end of time," Sen whispered into Haku's ear.

"I thought so. But like I said, that's why I brought you out here. I needed to know. So now, we can go back to the bath house," he said. The trees scattered as they passed by.

 They landed on the balcony just outside the sliding door with everyone still asleep, and as Haku changed back to his normal form, Sen just wouldn't let go of him. He struggled to turn and face her in her tight grip (she had been on his back while they flew, and that didn't change just because he turned to a human :P). Haku actually giggled a little, picked up Sen, and carried her to where the wall separated them from the sleeping workers. He sat down, still holding her, with his feet dangling over the edge. Sen moved herself so that she sat in Haku's lap, and with her head on his shoulder. She gradually fell back to sleep as he hummed a tune, with her in his gentle and loving arms.

"Wake up Sen," Naomi said, shaking her. "Rin said that she would take us to see Kamagii so that he could teach us some magic!"

"Rin," Sen began, "I didn't know that humans could _learn magic……"_

"I never told you? Well they can, and Kamagii is gonna teach you some today. He thought it would be useful if there is a war between us and the Xovio Cartel."

"Won't it be fun, Sen?" Naomi asked while folding her sleeping mat.

Sen gave an affirmative grunt as she stacked her sleeping mat into the closet.

"You should wear your uniforms, too. You're gonna have to come back and work afterwards," Rin said.

Sen and Naomi got changed, and when they came back out, the others had already gone to work.

Once they reached the boiler room, they saw the usual: Kamagii grinding dried worm salt and the like, and the susuwatari carrying the coal into the furnace. One of them, seeing the girls approach, went into its hole and brought out two pieces of food, or kompeitou, that it had saved. He offered a piece to Sen and one to Naomi, who gladly took it. They didn't want to be rude, after all; he had saved it for them. It was very good, too. It tasted like an m&m with cinnamon and vanilla in it. Seeing that they liked it, the susuwatari happily went back to work.

After finishing with the bath tokens he had to take care of, Kamagii turned and spoke to them. "So, you two want to learn some basic magic?"

"Yeah," they replied enthusiastically.

"Well come on over here and sit down, I can start be teaching you how to give things life if they are not alive." Sen and Naomi sat down as they listened to him. He put a handful or soot onto the ground in front of them, and said, "Each of you take half of this pile. Now then, put your hand over it and say, 'Unleash the life within thee.' It isn't enough just to say it though, you have to feel yourself giving it life."

Sen put her hand over a small pile of soot and said the words that Kamagii had told them. Once she finished speaking, a tingle ran from her fingers and all the way up to her shoulder. Suddenly, the pile in front of her sprang to life and started looking around. It saw Sen and immediately latched onto her knee.

"Seems like he's happy to have you as his mommy," Kamagii said, laughing. "Do you want me to put another spell on him so he won't turn back into soot from not working? That way he can go with you when you go to work."

Sen nodded, and Kamagii put the spell on it. Meanwhile, Naomi was trying and trying, but the pile in front of her wasn't moving. Kamagii looked at it, and turned it over. Naomi had given it life, but it was just sleeping.

"Um…… I don't think this one would want to come with us. He might have to give up sleeping until nighttime," Naomi said, poking at the susuwatari she had created. Every time she poked it on its stomach, it grunted, and made them all laugh. "Sen, are you going to name yours?"

"Yeah, I think I'll call him Dayu," she replied as Dayu hopped onto her shoulder. "Is there anything else that you can teach us, Kamagii?"

"Well I only know one other thing that could help you during battle, and that is that I can teach you how to heal things." He showed them one of his hands, which had a scratch on it from grinding things. "You won't be able to practice on anything, but to heal something, just drag a finger across it if the cut is small enough. If the cut, bruise, or whatever is too big for your finger, trace around it." He ran his finger along his scratch, and it disappeared. "And like before, you have to feel yourself healing it. As for curing illnesses, that takes a little more than I can show you."

As Kamagii finished speaking, Rin came into the room. "Sorry to spoil the fun, but I need you two to help me. Yubaba told me to take 'my little friends' to clean the big tub again, but I think it's probably another test for you, Sen. But in any case, she's gonna rip somebody's head off if that tub isn't cleaned." Rin saw Dayu hopping up and down on Sen's shoulder, excited to see his mommy at work, and she laughed a sort of laugh that you would make when you're out of air; it had no sound. So if you can, try to imagine her leaning over with watering eyes, mouth open, and pointing at Dayu. She probably thought it was so funny because it looked like it wanted to help. But when Rin laughed at him, he puffed himself up to look bigger.

"Look Sen! He's totally ferocious," Rin said as she caught her breath. But then she started laughing again at the sight of Dayu.

"Aw, don't laugh at him Rin! Dayu only wants to help his mommy with her chores," Sen said. "Bye Kamagii, thanks for everything."

"Good luck," he said as he tried to wake up the susuwatari that Naomi had made.

"Alright then, fallow me," Rin commanded.

_"C'mon little girl, you better fallow me."_


	9. Back Again

Wahoo! Chapter 9 is here! You know you wanted it ;) So anyway, gimmie more reviews! Hehe…. Once school gets out, I'll be able to work on this more. It gets out on July 24th….. Son of a diddly!

Sen and Naomi fallowed Rin to the big tub. When they got there, it was filthy and smelled like sewage. Grass and sludge was everywhere. Over in a corner were mops, brooms, scrubbers and such all in a stack of buckets. Rin walked over to it and tried to pick it up, but she had to yank it hard, because it was stuck to the ground from the build-up of scum and slime. Behind them they could hear other workers laughing at them as they started to scrub the caked-on filth. 

"No doubt: This is gonna need an herbal soak," Rin stated needlessly.

"No. We're doing this on our own," Sen imposed. She had thought hard about different things on the way there, and she decided that she had to push herself. When Naomi had asked her the other night how she could have left the Spirit World, she started thinking about what to do this time. She thought that if she could toughen up a little, then whatever had to happen between her and Haku wouldn't seem so unbearable. After all, what if she had to go back home, never to see him again? Naomi and Rin were looking at her like she was insane.

"Can't you see this mess? Remember how hard it was to clean last time? It needs a soaking now more than ever," Rin argued.

"Maybe, but I need to start doing things on my own even more. Now stop complaining, this doesn't look so hard."

Actually, it really wasn't. The bristles on the scrubbers were so coarse from so many years that they cleaned things rather quickly. Since it was a big room though, it took about an hour to clean everything but the actual tub. They did that last.

Meanwhile, Sen wasn't satisfied. As she scrubbed the walls of the tub, she felt like something was missing. With her feet in water up to her ankles, she remembered the first time she met Haku when he was the spirit of the Kohaku River. Back then, she didn't know who he was, but now she loved the very thought of him. Feeling the water between her toes, she felt so comfortable being reminded of such sweet memories. She sat down in the dirty water (which, at this point, was so dirty that you could call it mud), and she stared into it. She knew she looked stupid, but that didn't matter, because (as sick as it may sound) when the disgustingly odorous mud enveloped her body up to her hips, it felt like she was back on the balcony in Haku's lap, being lulled to a peaceful slumber. Before she looked like she had gone crazy, she stood back up as Rin started talking to her and Naomi. 

"I think it's clean enough. We can rinse it out now. Lucky for you, Sen, I already have a bath token," she said as she sent it to Kamagii. Soon after, a board on the wall popped out, and as Rin pulled the rope, the tub filled with water. 

Suddenly, there was a big commotion on the other side of the bath house. They could hear that people were gasping in shock, something was smashing into the walls, and above it all, Yubaba was screaming her head off. Rin, Sen and Naomi all stopped what they were doing to look through the hall and see what had happened. They didn't get very far though, because Haku, in his dragon form, charged in and landed in the big tub. They ran over to him, and saw that he had been wounded in many different places.

"Sen, thank goodness you're here now. Haku has been hurt, and he wouldn't let anybody care for him but you," Yubaba said from the same spot she had watched Sen and Mr. Raikatuji (AKA, stink/river spirit) long ago. As she came down to them, she added, "I sent him to Zeniiba to tell her about you coming back to this world, and when he came back, he was hurt and desperate to find you." As she finished, Haku began writhing in agony. His bleeding had made the water start to turn red. Sen immediately got into the water with him and started using the healing skill that Kamagii had taught her. Tears silently escaped from her eyes; she was afraid that she would lose Haku forever. One by one, she traced her finger over the cuts and scrapes all over his body, and they vanished. As she did this, Haku (even though he still had a lot of healing to go through) looked like he wasn't in pain anymore. Sen though, was feeling it all. But if it made Haku better, she wanted to.

Now don't go and assume that the rest of them were just standing around. Dayu was nervously hanging over the edge of the tub, squealing with anxiousness. Yubaba was watching with concern as Rin and Naomi tried to help. But every time they got near Haku, Sen would get distracted and Haku would start squirming in pain again. After he calmed down though, it was easier to heal him and Sen finished quickly. As she did, Haku became a human again.

Sen gathered him into her arms and sat in the murky water with him. 

She was about to bombard him with hugs and kisses, but then she remembered how shy he was about that in front of everyone, so she asked, "What happened to you?"

"While I was coming back from Zeniiba's house, Kosho attacked me. He is one of the major members of the Xovio Cartel, and I think he is planning to attack here soon. Maybe in a few days, after he can organize a militia," Haku said calmly. "Sen, I'm okay now, don't worry."

"What do you mean _don't worry_? We're going to be under attack soon, and we don't have anyone besides ourselves to fight," Yubaba interrupted.

"That's bull. Just have the workers fight, and in exchange, give them a raise or something. But they probably would fight just for the sake of saving their home, if you ask me," Haku said, knowing that he was being pretty rude to Yubaba. He just figured that she only said that so she could complain about something.

"Fine. Sen, I would let you go without finishing this tub since you look so shaken, but there isn't much left to do. Just finish it and then you can have the rest of the day off."

Sen pulled the plug at the bottom of the tub, and the water drained out, leaving it spotless. She gave Yubaba a look as if to say sarcastically, "Oh you showed me, girl," and Dayu was right there on her shoulder, giving an attitude with her. She stood up, and Haku helped her out of the tub as Rin and Naomi collected the brooms and scrubbers.

As Yubaba left scornfully, Haku saw what she had seen: Sen was very much shaken up. Concerned, he asked, "Are you okay, Sen? I didn't look for your help so that I could worry you, you know. I did it because......" He paused. "Because I didn't want just anybody to help me……" He held Sen's hand as she put it up to his face and added, "Not when I could have you." 

As Sen and Haku fussed over each other, Naomi and Rin did their own thing.

"Boy, I tell ya: I'm starting to worry about their separation when you guys leave," Rin said to Naomi. "I mean, they look so happy together. They would probably lose the will to live if they could never see each other again."

"I know what you mean. Whenever I see Haku around the building, he looks like he is on top of the world. I can never talk to him though; it's like he's so eager to see Sen all day that he spends all his time running around to work off the excitement."

"Come to think off it, I've noticed that in the past two days that you have been here, he _has_ been coming and going a lot more than he used to."

"You think he could be planning something?"

"It's likely, with him. He is very sneaky."

They saw Haku walk out of the room, and then Sen went over to them. Dayu, who was first on Sen's shoulder, went with Naomi while Sen would be gone.

"I'm going to go take a shower and get some new clothes," she said with a very pleased look. "I'm happy that you at least have Rin, Naomi, because I do feel bad that I pretty much ignore you when Haku is around. But anyway, I'll probably just come back and help you two once I finish, even though I have the rest of the day off," She said as she waved to them and left.

After Sen had finished her shower, she went into the workers' bedroom, and found Haku there. 

Hearing her come in, he turned around and asked, "Will you let me take you somewhere?"

Sen remembered that she already said she would help Naomi and Rin with their work, and she replied, "I just need to tell Naomi and Rin that I'm going. I said that I would help them and—"

"I already let them know," he said excitedly. Wherever they were going, Sen could see that Haku was anxious to get there.

She smiled at him as he turned into a dragon and she got on. 

It didn't take long to get there, because they had walked there before with no trouble. Once they arrived, Sen remembered where they were: the field of crops and flowers that Sen cried in after she saw her parents as pigs. For some reason, she was delighted to be there again. But then again, she loved being anywhere with Haku.

Haku got back into his human shape, and as soon as he did, Sen kissed him. She was more thrilled than ever that he remembered so much about her last stay there. She was even happier that he didn't pull away this time though. Instead, he held her close in his arms and yielded to his craving to love her completely (that is, physically, and not just emotionally). Since Sen had been there, he had never let himself do this with everybody around in the bath house. But now that they were alone, he could show his affection with a little more than just a hug, which is what he really wanted, and was the reason for taking Sen there.

"Are you happy to be with me?" 

When Sen heard this, she was a bit startled at first, because Haku's lips were still gently against hers (and in them, and around them, and…..), so he could not have spoken. But then she remembered last night, and how their bond had made it possible to share their thoughts without words.

Sen, still attached to Haku at the mouth, slowly brought him down to the ground, herself next to him. Then, since she was enjoying that moment much too thoroughly to make it end, she said with her mind rather than words, "I'm happier with you than I was happy to save my parents, and I love you more than anything in both worlds."

They stayed like that for quite a while, when finally, Haku stopped to catch his breath. You probably would have to also, if you were going at it like they were. He lied flat on his back with his arms spread out and had a look on his faced that showed he was much more than just satisfied. 

He sighed blissfully and said, "Well, now that the first order of business is taken care of, and quite well I might add," at this, he grinned, "I have one more thing to do for you while we are here." He walked behind some tall plants and out of sight. When he came back, he had a large basket. Inside it was the same food that he had given her at that same spot 6 years ago (sorry, I don't know what it was in the movie……….)

"Did you make those, Haku?"

"Indeed I did. How many do you want?" As he said this, he sat next to her, pulled out two and offered them to her. She took a bite of one, and almost choked on it with amazement.

"These are better than I remember!"

"Yes, well…… I knew that Gyukudo would bring you here a few weeks before you came. So, after Rin got her job in the kitchen, I asked her to teach me how to cook…… The ones you had last time were from the kitchen, but I made these myself."

Most people would think that was only a nice gesture, and that it was just another way for Haku to have gotten into Sen's heart, but Sen took it as a whole lot more. She thought to herself, "If he learned how to cook just for me, then is he preparing for something? Does he want to be able to cook food for me any time that I would be hungry, as if we—" Her thoughts were interrupted by the look on Haku's face. He was expecting a reaction from Sen that was more than deep thought.

"Haku, I don't know how I managed to get through my life without you or your delicious food for six years," she said as she finished her first piece. "But really……. This is the second-best thing I've ever tasted."

"What's the best thing?"

Sen, once again, started kissing Haku. You guessed it; the best thing she'd ever tasted. 

_"Chihiro, you have to try this; it's so tender!"_

Well I think that quote from the movie was rather appropriate, don't you? Lol. Well now you can see why this chapter took so long to finish: it's a long chapter. At least, it's the longest one in the story so far……… PLEASE review on it!!!


	10. Beam Me Up

Hey, thanks a bunch for all the reviews so far ^_^ Sorry to tell you, but I'm losing ideas, so don't mind if the chapters start to come a bit slower…

Their kiss was interrupted when Haku saw, over Sen's shoulder, rustling in the tall stalks of flowers. His hands, which had been running through Sen's hair, were now turning her head towards the intrusive disturbance. Sen stood up with surprise and took a few steps back. Haku was standing in front of her with a puzzled expression. Who would be looking for them here?

As they watched, they saw the stalks get pushed aside, but nothing came out of them. They heard a few more steps in front of them, and could see footprints appearing one by one, but couldn't actually see who it was that was making them.

The footprints stopped, and slowly, the figure became visible. It was No-Face, and he was holding a piece of paper.

"No-Face! You startled us with that invisibility act you pulled," she said with relief. "Were you looking for us? Did you walk all this way???"

"Ah, ah," was his exhausted reply as he handed the paper to Sen. It was a letter for her. She read it out loud:

Sen (It's Sen again by now, right?), 

I would like it if you could come and visit me sometime. I would also like to meet your friend who you brought along; No-Face has been drawing pictures of you and her since he got back to my house after waking you for Gyukudo that morning. Will you also bring Boh with you? It's been a while since I've seen him.

            -Granny

"Oh my gosh… I completely forgot about Boh!"

"Don't feel bad, the waiting will probably make him happier to see you when we get him. And who's Granny?" Haku asked.

"That's Zeniiba. When I brought her seal back to her, she wanted me to call her Granny."

"Ah. Ah," No-Face said as he turned the note over in Sen's hands. There was a drawing of her and Naomi on the other side done with a blue crayon. Below it was a small star… Sen didn't know why it was there, she just accepted it.

"Wow, this looks just like us! Can I keep it?"

No-Face gave an enthusiastic nod accompanied by an, "Ah. Ah," as Sen folded the note and put it in her pocket.

"No-Face, did Zeniiba tell you a way that we could all get to her house? I would fly there with Haku, but he would also have to take Naomi and Boh with us, which would be too heavy. I would walk, but I don't know the way, and you look like you're about to collapse from walking, No-Face. And I'm pretty sure that Kamagii doesn't have any more train tickets."

No-Face motioned for Sen to take the letter back out. When she did, he pointed to the star at the bottom.

"Oh, I know what that is now! Sen, Yubaba has a portal underneath the bridge that she used to use to travel to Zeniiba's house."

"Is that why Naomi and I had to hold our breaths while we crossed?"

"Yup; the energy that it emits would have interfered with my spell if you didn't. And that little drawing of a star represents the key we need to work it," Haku explained.

"It's a key?"

"Well, so to speak. There's a slot at the top of the portal that the key fits into. I don't know how we're going to find it though; Yubaba probably won't give it up. Partly because she's just cruel, but more because she might not even know where it is, since she hasn't used it in ages." Sen could sense the doubt in his voice.

"Well, we could always try……" She said as they started walking back to the bath house. 

While they were going on their way, Sen couldn't help but notice the way No-Face was wobbling about with fatigue. Why would Zeniiba want him to walk all that way, just to ask her to visit? Could something be wrong?

They were just reaching the ground under the bridge, when there was a thud above them. Haku looked up to see what it was, and there was a disturbingly in-human face looking back at him. Its skin was dark gray and scaly, and had small horns down its scalp. Its eyes were completely white, but you could still somehow know where it was looking: strait at Haku.

"I'm warning you, Kosho," he said under his breath. "Sen, go get Naomi, Boh, and the key, and hurry!" As Haku said this, Kosho dove from the bridge at him as he pushed Sen towards the bath house. She started running, but looked back for one last glance of what on earth was going on. 

Kosho, who was a very tall, stealthy and swift character, was persistently lunging at Haku. 

He had an advantage, too; he was built with legs that had extra joints, which helped him move faster, and he had scythes protruding from his wrists. He also had bony and featherless wings. He must have landed on the bridge after they were already below it.

Haku was only narrowly dodging the blows as he muttered spells to try and stop Kosho. No-Face wanted to help, but all he could do was sit on a rock and catch his breath.

"Kosho…... Isn't he…..? Oh no…," Sen thought to herself, "I have to hurry!"

She climbed up the steep slope under the bridge as fast as she could, and tore into the bath house. As she neared the kitchen, she saw Naomi carrying a load of dirty dishes on a tray to be cleaned, and Dayu was on her shoulder. Sen grabbed her by the wrist as she tried to run faster, making Naomi drop all the dishes in her haste. 

Struggling to keep up, Naomi asked in confusion, "What the… Where are we going in such a rush?"

"No time to explain," Sen said as she waved an apologetic hand at the people who were hit with the dishes. Dayu was clinging to Naomi with all his strength and squealing with perplexed anticipation.

With Sen leading the way, they bolted into the elevator. It didn't even take that long before the doors began to close, but even so, it was too slow for the situation at hand. She and Naomi left the elevator and climbed up the stairs as quickly as their legs would allow them.

After what seemed like hours to Sen, they finally reached the top floor where Yubaba's office was. They charged down the hall and right up to the first door with the infamous doorknocker on it. 

"And where do you think you're—" The doorknocker was interrupted by their abrupt entrance through the door, and the fact that they completely ignored it.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT! Didn't your parents ever teach you any MANNERS?!" All they heard after that was muffled grunts about how Yubaba could turn them into things for intruding.

The rest of the doors along the hallway were still open, thankfully. It probably would have doubled the time it took them to get there if they had to stop and open each individual door.

When they at last reached Yubaba's office, Sen immediately began ransacking the room to find the key.

"Naomi, go get Boh from his nursery," Sen commanded as she pointed to the padded room just beyond some curtains.

Naomi went, trying to remember who Boh was form when Sen told her about her last visit there. Sen just continued to search, and then a glint of light caught her eye. She picked it up, and saw that it was just what she was looking for.

Just then, Naomi burst through the curtains with a terrified look on her face. "Sen, he's huge! And he's NAPPING! What do you want me to do? I'm afraid to wake him up…" 

Sen began to get slightly frustrated with Naomi for that. But since she had found the key, she could just go and get Boh herself. So, leaving Yubaba's office in quite a mess, she ran into the nursery and found Boh lying in a heap of pillows.

"Wake up, Boh! We need to go see Granny!"

"Mmmmmff… hmmmrrrrrmmm…"

"Get up NOW!"

Meanwhile, Naomi was nervously poking at Boh's head, trying to help. Dayu was jumping up and down on his stomach.

Suddenly, from far off, they heard swift footsteps, which could only be Yubaba's, the way they sounded so close together. They panicked, knowing that the doorknocker must have told her all about what they were doing. Or if not what they were doing, it would have made up stories just to get them into deeper trouble.

"GET UP, BOH! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE **NOW**!" Sen was waving her arms frantically in the air, when suddenly, and orange bubble surrounded Boh. They all jumped back a step, and the bubble seemed to be magnetically attracted to Sen. Did **she** make that happen? It seemed to be so, because she could direct where the bubble went. She could even make it levitate with the flick of a finger. 

Thinking quickly, she analyzed the situation. Yubaba was coming for them as fast as she could, Haku was in trouble, they needed to get through the portal, and she had a floating bubble. What to do?

"Naomi, get on!" she said as she straddled the bubble. Once Naomi got on, Sen steered the bubble out of the nursery. Yubaba ran into the room just as they entered it, and she tried to stop them, but they were already out the window and had just barely missed being turned into lumps of coal.

They flew around the building with amazing speed, although it was a very bumpy ride. Sen had difficulty controlling it because first of all, she hadn't even planned on creating the thing in the first place. For another thing, every time they turned a corner, she would almost fall off of it.

Meanwhile, Naomi was suffering from just about the same things. However, there was the exception that she couldn't understand her purpose for being there. Not to mention how quickly it was all happening for her. She was doing her work, when boom: she was told to wake up this huge, I-don't-even-want-to-know-where-that-thing-has-been type of baby. That may not seem too difficult to you, but when you have a reputation for making babies cry, it is.

Boh wasn't having a good time either. But, just so that he doesn't look like a complete baby (even though he is one), imagine this: You're sleeping peacefully in a big, comfy mound of pillows, when this girl who you haven't seen in six years comes up and starts screaming at you. Then, suddenly, you're trapped in a sphere, you're hurled out the window, and you can see the tremendous distance between the ground and yourself. I don't know about you, but I feel for the kid. I really do.

Dayu, on the other hand, was very relaxed and enjoying himself. Even though he didn't know what was happening either, he had a good seat on Sen's shoulder, and fortunately, he wasn't afraid of heights. It's not like it would actually hurt if he fell; he was so light that he probably wouldn't feel a thing. All he had to do the entire flight was throw his arms up like he was on a roller coaster.

But anyway, the four of them were soaring closer and closer to the portal by the second. The bridge came into sight, and they soon saw Haku fighting with Kosho, too. Sen did her best to land the bubble and get off so she could put the key into the slot on the portal. Once she did that, a swirling vortex appeared in the frame of the portal. Kosho became distracted by it; now was Haku's chance to strike. He leaped into the air and kicked the side of one of Kosho's scythes as hard as he could. The sharp tip of it gouged out Kosho's right eye as he screamed in agony. Blood gushed out from the now empty socket and streamed down his face. In a fit of rage, Kosho started lashing out at nothing but the air around him. 

Haku ran over to the portal, but Kosho was close behind him. Sen steered the bubble into the portal just before Naomi jumped in, and then reached into her pocket. She pulled out her dragon-shaped whistle and spun the string on it around in a circle like she had once done before. The red, transparent shield appeared in front of her and Kosho threw himself against it, trying to attack Sen. She managed to stay on her feet under the incredible blow, and she squeezed the handle of the shield as hard as she could manage. It trembled violently in her fist for a while, and then she loosened her grip. Immediately, the largest blast of fire she had ever hoped to see shot out the center of the shield and knocked Kosho onto the ground, unconscious. 

Haku heard some workers coming out to see what had happened, and motioned for Sen to go into the portal. She was just about to go into it, when Kosho stirred. He didn't attack though; he just ran in circles for a moment and then flew off with one last terrified look at them.

The sound of the workers approaching grew louder, and Sen ran into the portal. Haku fallowed her in, and they finally made their exit.

_"What are you still doing here? I told you to leave!"_

Well…. That about wraps up chapter 10. Personally, this is my favorite one so far. So gimmie more reviews!


	11. Company at Swamp Bottom

Oh my goodness…. I'm so excited! Chapter 11 is here at last! What did you think of the last one? Aah, it doesn't matter what you think, cuz I loved it! Now read chapter 11! And THANK YOU SO MUCH for the reviews! I'm honored that you all love it so much :D  This chapter's got a lot of talking in it! Yay!

            "You have failed me."

            "Master, he was not alone this time…."

            "That means nothing to me. When he was alone, you still could not exterminate him. Kosho, twice I have sent you to snuff out the flame of that damned boy's life, and twice you have misjudged his strength. What is your excuse this time?"

            "He was not alone…"

            As he answered, Kosho made his way through a dark cave, which he had been standing outside of. He came to an opening where light was let in through the top, and in the light was his master, floating in the air and surrounded by a dark smoke. He knelt humbly before his master, the light revealing her delicate features. That's right; *her* features. 

            She had very long, black hair that grew farther than her knees, and she wore a simple, silver, full-length dress with loose sleeves. Her skin was very pale, and her expression was blank. Her eyes were glazed over as if she were unconscious. She was holding a long staff with a stone at the top of it. 

            "Who was with him?"

            "I think she may have been…"

            "Tell me."

            "Lady Yukiji, he had that girl form the human world with him. There was one other human, too, and a No-Face. But… it was HER….."

            Yukiji's face grew pale and her eyes widened. "It seems as though we have more than Haku in our way of the seal now…"

            In front of Zeniiba's house, Sen was lying on the ground, almost unable to breathe. Beads of sweat were dripping down her face. After all, she had run up countless flights of stairs, performed magic that had quite taken her by surprise, flown on a very insecure bubble, and fought a demon that had once came close to killing Haku. No-Face came through the portal, finally, but it wasn't his fault he had gone so slowly; he was still exhausted.

            Everybody, including Zeniiba, was standing close by with concern.

            "Sen, I'm very proud of you," Haku said as he got on his knees next to her.

            "That was— how did I— Kosho— wasn't he the one…?" Sen stuttered between heavy breaths.

            "Yes," he said with a smile at Sen, "He was the one who attacked me before I found you at the big tub. I'm very surprised that you could handle it so well. But I would really like to know how you got Boh into that bubble…"

            "Yeah, really," Naomi agreed, "where did it come from? Kamagii never taught us that."

            "Oh," Sen said, remembering about Boh and releasing him from the bubble. Then, just catching her breath, she said, "I really can't tell you."

            Zeniiba chuckled to herself, trying to comprehend how Sen couldn't know the reason, and everyone turned their head towards her. Dayu jumped off of Naomi's head and onto the ground next to Sen.

            "Oh, what a cute little critter," Zeniiba exclaimed as she bent down to Dayu. She had completely dropped Sen's new magic trick from her mind. It was okay though; she wasn't going to explain it anyway. Better to let Sen find out on her own. She always does. "What's his name?"

            "Dayu," Sen answered. Sensing that Zeniiba wasn't going to say anything about the orange bubble (just as she said almost nothing about how to find her way home from her last visit), she changed the subject. "Why did you want us to come here so badly that you made No-Face walk all that way to get us?"

            "I'll answer that in a minute. First, tell me what happened before you got here."

            "Well," Haku began, "I was showing the portal to Sen when Kosho snuck up on us. So since he was there, I had to fight him off while Sen got Naomi, Boh and the key." He looked down at Sen and added, "When she came back with them and put the key into the portal, I had taken out one of Kosho's eyes. But still, he saw that we were about to leave, and he turned his attacks to Sen. She used the whistle she got from Gyukudo to defend herself, and she handled it very well." 

            Haku, at this point, was stroking Sen's hand in his own as she was lying on the ground with him kneeling next to her. He didn't notice it, since he felt so comfortable doing it, but Zeniiba did. She was about to say something, but then she thought that it shouldn't be any big deal. She remembered that if Sen had been older the last time, they would have been this deeply in love even then (Okay... you may think that this was pointless, but it wasn't. I had to somehow get the fact in there that now Zeniiba knows they are in love…). She just smiled at how Haku took care of Sen, and then resolved to tell Sen why she wanted them there.

            "Well Sen, since you had to go through so much, I guess you deserve to know why I sent for you," Zeniiba said pleasantly. "First of all, I just missed you and wanted to know how you have been. But more importantly, I wanted your advice on what to do with my seal. Gyukudo must have trusted you, a human, with one of the seven magical items for some reason, so it may be helpful to know what you think I should do with it."

            "What do you mean, what to do with it?"

            "Well, come into the house and I will explain it more clearly."

            They went into Zeniiba's house, and there was fire going with some tea boiling over the flames. They all sat down at the table and Zeniiba continued her explanation.

            "Sen, as I was saying, I don't know what to do with the seal, and I wanted your advice. The way I see it, it isn't safe with me. My home is out in the open over here, and very easy to spot. If the Xovio Cartel gives up in trying to get Haku out of the way and moves on to take my seal, it would be very easy for them to send as many troops as they needed to come down here and get it from me. As strong as my magic is, I'm only one old lady, and I wouldn't be able to keep the seal safe."

            "I see what you mean now… The only thing that I can think of would be to give it to Yubaba." 

Zeniiba didn't say anything. She just gave Sen a look; the kind of look you would give somebody if they addressed you by your name, then asked you what your name was as if they never knew it at all.

            "You could give it to Gyukudo," Boh said. 

"Well I thought of that too, but one can't really summon him as one pleases. He goes to people when he feels like it; there isn't really a way for anybody to go to him. I wouldn't know what to do with it

            "What if you gave it to Kamagii?" Naomi suggested.

            "I think that would be best," Haku said, "Nobody would expect it to be under the protection of a boiler man."

            "That's a very clever idea, Naomi," Zeniiba said gratefully. "Well, do you think you three could give it to him? You are welcome to spend the night here while you recover your strength. You seem to be worn out from the battle with Kosho."

            "Thank you very much," Haku said. The others thanked her too.

            They stayed with Zeniiba for the rest of the day and the fallowing night, not really doing much at all. When they weren't laying down to rest, they were knitting with Zeniiba, or in Naomi's case, being taught to knit. When it was finally dark and they were all in their own cot, they turned out the lights and went to sleep (but not before Haku gave Sen a kiss good-night ;)). It didn't take long for Sen to fall asleep…

            __

_            "What is this place?" she thought to herself. "It's so dark… where am I? What's that light…?" She took a few steps forward and then stopped, afraid of stumbling over something in the darkness. "It's coming closer… what is it? And what's that sound?" Sen started to hear a voice that sounded very familiar. It sounded so welcoming and happy… she strained her senses to make out the sound and light. "I can almost see it… is it a person? It's Haku! But what's he holding that could be making that light?" She took a few more steps towards Haku. By now he was only a few feet out of her reach. She held out her hand and just barely opened her mouth when… "Huh? What's happening?! Haku!" His body began to disappear, beginning at his feet and continuing up to his head. Suddenly, she was alone again, which wasn't a great feeling, especially when your loneliness is from losing a loved one. "Haku…" her voice became fainter as she, too, was swallowed into the darkness…_

"Haku!" She only just woke up when she hit the floor between hers and Haku's cots. She lifted her head to see him. "Haku," she said sleepily, "promise you'll never leave me."

            "Huh? Sen, I would never leave you for anything; I love you. You know that."

            "Please promise me!" By now she was on the verge of tears.

            "I promise. Here, put this closer… that's it," he said as he got up and put their two cots right next to each other. "Get back to sleep now before we wake the others. It's late; we need to rest for our walk tomorrow."

            Sen got back into bed and started to feel safer. Haku nudged her to have her back facing him. Then he put his arm over her and buried his face in her hair, next to her shoulder. 

"I love you, Chihiro."

_Chihiro?_ She looked at the bracelet Haku had given her. It had her name on it. HER name. Not Sen, but Chihiro. Haku remembered her name and had made her that bracelet. What's more though is that he called her by her name when she should be known as Sen. He called her Chihiro. She loved him for that; she could always count on him to be there for her, whenever she may need him and for whatever reason.

She sighed, overwhelmed with the relaxation of being held the way Haku was holding her. She fell back asleep.

            "Thank you for everything, Granny," Sen said as she finished putting away her cot.

            "Any time. I'm sorry you have to walk all the way back, but Yubaba's portal was a one-way thing. Are you sure you'll be alright? Do you want some food to take along?"

            "Ah. Ah."

            "That would be great, thanks," Sen replied. Then, to Haku, she asked, "You know the way by land, right?"

            "Well I don't know what the path is like, but I know the direction to travel in. We should be able to find our way."

            "Okay," Sen said as Zeniiba came back into the room with a sack of food for the four of them. Boh looked a little disappointed when Sen took it instead of letting him (hehe). 

            "Is there anything else I can do for you before you leave?"

            "I don't think we need anything else, but thank you," Sen replied.

            "Ah, ah," No-Face said, opening the door.

            "I hope we meet again before you leave this world," Zeniiba said to Sen and Ruby as they and the other two grew more and more out of sight. 

            _"Thanks for everything, Granny."_


	12. Suprise, Suprise

Aaah!!! It's chapter 12!!! It's chapter 12!!! Enjoy!!! And thanks for all the reviews so far!!!

            The path they took through the thick woods was teeming with trees and other plants that made the forest a bit creepy. However, for Sen it was at the same time comforting to know that they weren't out in the open where they would be easier for evil to spot…

            "Haku, how long do you think it will take to get back to the bath house?" Sen asked.

            "I don't know; I've never walked all the way. If we need to we can stop and make camp for the night."

            "I'm hungry," Boh complained. 

            "We just had breakfast at Zeniiba's not even thirty minutes ago. Can you wait a little longer? We need to make this food last," Sen said as she and Naomi thought how much Yubaba must spoil Boh. But at least there was *somebody* she didn't despise.

            Boh deliberately screwed up his face like he was about to cry, but nobody was watching him so he just kept walking. 

            "I'm hungry," he said again after about ten minutes. They all looked at him with slight irritation. 

            "Okay then, we can have a snack. But only a small one," Haku said, giving in to the pathetic look on Boh's face. "What do we have in that bag of food Zeniiba gave us, Sen?"

            She opened the bag and looked inside. "She gave us some chicken wings and some dry rice. The chicken is still warm, so Boh, you can have a chicken wing." Sen also noticed a few blankets at the bottom of the bag.

            Boh held out his hand to take the chicken wing from Sen. When she put it in his hand, severe disappointment took control of him and made him immediately drop the smile he was sporting. Boh had a grown a few inches in six years, both in height and width. The tiny little chicken wing was only the size of his thumb.

            Seeing this, Naomi asked, "How many are in there?"

            "Eight; which makes two for each of us, if we split them evenly," Sen replied. "You can have my share if you want, Boh…" She looked back up to him from the bag to see that he had already finished the chicken wing she had given him.

            "Can I really? Gimmie," he said, holding out his hand again. 

            Sen gave him his other chicken wing as well as the two that were supposed to be hers. Then she asked, "Can you eat them while we walk?"

            He nodded as she took a bite of one of them. His face was quite a mess, considering the short time he had been eating.

            The four of them had walked a long way, but Haku figured that they still weren't even half way to the bath house. It was coming close to nightfall and Boh had already eaten all the chicken that they had as snacks. 

            "We should stop here for the night," Haku said as they came to a small clearing. 

            Sen set down the bag of food, which was now only rice, and looked at it hungrily. To her relief, Haku asked her, "Sen, will you come with me to get firewood so we can have the rice for dinner?"

            "Absolutely. But we don't have a pot; how are we going to cook it?"

            Haku picked up an acorn shell and held it in front of him. It began to grow in size dramatically until it was big enough to hold enough rice for them all. Next, Haku waved his other hand around it, presumably to put a coating on it so it wouldn't catch fire.

            "Why couldn't you have done that for food or something?" Naomi asked as she picked up a rock in the shape of a drumstick. "Couldn't you turn this into more chicken?"

            "Only if you wanted it to taste like the rock it began as," Haku replied. Naomi tossed the rock back onto the ground.

            Haku squinted his eyes to see through the thick foliage and said, "I think I can see a fallen tree over there; we should use its wood for the fire, since it's bound to be perfectly dry… not having any sap left in it, and all."

            "Okay," Sen replied. 

            "Boh and I will take out the blankets Zeniiba gave us and get some water for the pot," Naomi said as Haku and Sen left to get the wood. She picked up the pot and, pointing to a river behind a few trees, she said, "Boh, will you fill this with water?" He went, and Naomi proceeded to lay out their blankets.

            "Wow, it darker really fast," Sen noticed as they neared the fallen tree. "Just a few minutes ago, the sun hadn't even set yet. Now, I can barely see a thing… Haku? Where are you?" Sen asked as she realized that Haku was no longer next to her. She looked around for him, but by now it was so dark that she had trouble with just making out her hand in front of her face. Then she saw a light. Then another. Then more appeared one by one, and she walked up to one to see that they were only fireflies. 

            But where was Haku? She looked around a bit more, and then she could see the faint outline of him, only visible because he had caught a firefly.

            "Look Sen, I've never seen one of these before. They must only come out where there aren't any major buildings. That must be why they're never around the bath house…" Even though Haku was still walking towards her, Sen couldn't help but notice that Haku was getting progressively harder to see, until he was completely out of sight. Sen called out to him, but she was hit with a strange sense of de-ja-vou (sp?) as she felt an unwelcome pressure around her middle, and seemed to fallow Haku's fate into the darkness.

            "Why are they going so slow? I'm hungry!" Boh complained to Naomi.

            "Calm down, I'm sure they'll be back soon. They might just be trying to carry more than they can handle, slowing them down," she replied. But then she thought: 'That couldn't be it, Sen could just pick up all the wood we need in that bubble thing of hers. Hey… they aren't even anywhere near that fallen tree! I should probably look for them… besides, I don't want to be here for Boh to blame his hunger on… (There's her fear of making babies cry again -_-').'

            "Boh, I'm going to go look for them." 

            "Can I come? I'm hungry."

            Naomi was a bit unnerved by this request… But then, it would be worse to have the guilt hanging over her of leaving Boh vulnerable to anything lurking in the night than it would be to have him cry at her. Weakly, she responded, "Sure. First help me fold up the blankets again though; I don't know how long we might be looking, and I wouldn't want to lose these."

            Reluctantly, he helped, but only in the hopes of getting his mind off of his grumbling stomach.

            "Sen? Haku?" Naomi called out for what seemed to be the hundredth time.

            "Naomi, I'm _really_ hungry," Boh complained. "And we must have been searching for an hour," he added, not at all concerned at what could have happened to them. He was still focusing on how to get the rice from Naomi without her noticing.

            "I'm hungry too Boh, but it's more important right now to find Sen and Haku than it is to stop and cook a pot of rice."

            "But—"

            "She's right, you know," an unfamiliar voice said.

            "Oh, _finally somebody agrees with… wait, who are you?" Naomi asked timidly, looking around frantically and becoming very jumpy. All Boh did was sit down; this would most likely__ not get them any closer to a meal._

            "For somebody so beautiful, you certainly are very easy to intimidate," he said humorously. "I was going to capture you like I did to your friends, but then I had a better idea," he said, groping for her backside and coming into view. Naomi slapped him hard in the face, and then she thought she heard the man mutter something like, "Resist temptation…"

            "What do you mean, 'capture me like you did to our friends'? Where are they? What did you do to them?" she demanded. 

            "Don't worry, they are unharmed. I had my slaves bring them back to the castle."

            Boh perked up instantly. "Is there food there?"

            "Why, there certainly is," the stranger replied. "It's a very big castle with lots of rooms. It has a few kitchens, a dining room in each wing, loads of extra bedrooms…." His mind began to wander farther into the concept of a bedroom while he stood there with a stupidly happy look on his face. Naomi took this opportunity, as unpleasant as it was, to take a good look at whoever it was in front of her. He was wearing loose white robes, which had some sort of silver design on the front of them. His brown hair was in a long and high-up ponytail, and he had brown eyes. He looked not much older than Naomi; he could have been only nineteen years old (imagine the face to be like Miroku's….. he's got the same personality going, too). 

            "Oh, so I'm not the only one here who finds somebody attractive," he said, grinning and just barely stopping his hand from wandering again when he realized he was being observed.

            "What? I most certainly do NOT find you attractive, _and your constant need to probe me isn't helping!_" she said as she shoved his arm to a safe distance. "And what were you planning on doing instead of taking us captive?"

            "I was going to invite you to stay at my castle for a few days… and to bear my chil—" 

            Naomi slapped him again. "I don't have time to stay at your castle," she retorted, ignoring his second comment. (Sorry, I had to do that so she could slap him again… *places right hand over her heart* I solemnly swear never to write something so embarrassing again… now on with the story.) "Take me to see my friends. Then let us go."

            "Why would I do that? You four were trespassing on castle grounds. I could keep you in the dungeons for eternity if I wanted."

            Naomi was getting pretty off at this point. The only thing she had eaten that day was breakfast, she had to put up with Boh's complaints for hours, she had lost two of her friends, and now she had to plead for their freedom from some random, philandering cretin. 

            "Now make it easier on you and better for me: come to my castle."

            "No."

            "What about your friends? Aren't you going to save them?"

            Naomi huffed and started walking. Then the man began to walk in the direction of the castle, so she ran, now that she knew which way to go. 

            "And where are you going?" he asked, catching up to her and hoisting her up over his shoulder so she was looking towards the ground over his back.

            "PUT ME DOWN!"

            "I don't think I want to," he said cheerfully, his hand growing dangerously close to Naomi's rear end. She started to pound her fists into his back, but he ignored it.

            "Put me down."

            "No."

            "Put me down."

            "No."

            "Put me down."

            Instead of answering Naomi, the man turned back to Boh, who had stood up, not knowing what to do. "Hey kid, want some chow?"

            Boh fallowed him happily as Naomi hung with frustration over the pervert's shoulder, whose hands were earning him a death sentence.

            _"Haku could be dying while I'm just sitting here!"_


	13. How Did We Get Here?

Well, this is chapter 13. Thanks for all the reviews so far ^_^ Enjoy!

            When Sen finally regained consciousness, she sat up and looked around herself. She was in a large room with a high ceiling, tall windows, and on one wall was a sliding window that opened to a balcony almost the size of the room. There were potted flowers all over the balcony, vines growing along the railings… it looked like royalty had lived in this room. To add to that, Sen found herself lying on a huge bed with white sheets trimmed in gold. She was still looking around the room when somebody spoke to her.

            "Good morning, Chihiro," they said. Sen turned to see Haku sitting at a table near another window. He had a plate in front of him as if he had just eaten breakfast. He probably did, since there were countless foods in front of him: Eggs, bacon, pancakes, hash browns, rice, ham, toast, you name it. It was there. 

            "Where…?" Sen was becoming very confused. Hadn't they been kidnapped? 

            "We're at a castle… The people here, even the king, seem to think that we're people they've been expecting or something," Haku explained. "That's all they told me, anyway." He took a piece of toast and started to spread jelly on it, "Oh, they also said that they at first thought we were trespassing, since we were walking around in the woods without looking very official… That's why they caught us out there last night without really giving us a chance to react." He set down the knife he used to spread the jelly and brought the toast to Sen, sitting next to her on the bed. "The king's advisor came in a few minutes ago to see if we were really here and in the flesh…. I have no idea who they think we are though. So right now, you know as much as I do."

            Sen took a bite of her toast. "Have they been waiting on us?" she asked, nodding her head towards the food on the table.

            "Yeah, and they said that we could use whatever we see in this room. They even gave us permission to wander anywhere in the castle. But you should sleep some more after you finish that," he said, indicating her toast, "you still don't look fully recovered from… whatever they did to us after we blacked out… I think they were a bit rough with carrying us here; I have a few bruises, but nothing to worry about."

            Sen got back under the covers of her bed and watched Haku bring the plate back to the table. He came back to the side of the bed and sat down, smiling at her. "Go back to sleep, Chihiro," he said as he ran his thumb across a cut on her cheek. It tickled when it started healing; it felt like a caterpillar crawling along her skin.

            Sen giggled and asked, "Are you going to call me Chihiro from now on?"

            "As long as I can. Once we get back to the bath house, though, I'll have to call you Sen again. And speaking of the bath house, I think I'll go and see where _I can get a bath around here." _

            He kissed Sen on the forehead, left the room, and Sen fell asleep.

            "You said that we were trespassing on the castle grounds; just how far out do they extend? The sun has already risen," Naomi pointed out to the man (or rather… the back of the man), who was still happily carrying her.

            "Just a bit farther now," he replied cheerfully.

            "And when are you going to tell me your name?"

            "You'll know it once we get to the castle."

            Naomi shoved her elbow into his back. She'd been doing it all night, plus a few hours since the sun had risen… She was hoping that she had given him a large bruise to poke at in the hopes he might let her down.

            She craned her neck to look at Boh, who was walking slowly behind them now with hunger. 

            "Mister, I'm _really_ hungry now. When will we be there?"

            With some annoyance, the man turned around and said, "Just a bit farther, like I just said to your friend a few seconds ago."

            As he walked backwards while answering Boh, Naomi looked the way they were headed and saw a castle growing closer and closer to them. 

            "By the way, what _is_ the name of this lovely lady that I carry?"

            "You'll know it once we get to the castle," she mocked, greatly irritated at the fact that he had the nerve to ask her name when he refused to give his own.

            "Oh, how positively delightful!" he said with a chuckle. "I've never had the pleasure of meeting someone with such spirit!"

            "I'll show you spirit…" she muttered as she jammed her elbow once more into the man's back.

            "Come now, that's no way to act in front of a child."

            "I suppose _your behavior is any better? You're older than I am, plus you're a man, so Boh would fallow your examples, not mine! Honestly, by the time I finally get back with my friends, I wouldn't be surprised if Boh drove Haku mad with the disrespect you're teaching him to show Sen!"_

            "Are those the names of your friends? Haku and Sen?"

            "No," Naomi lied, partly to get on his nerves and partly to protect Haku and Sen from him. Then she put her finger over her lips to Boh, signaling him to keep quiet about it.

            "Huh… well I hope Haku and Sen missed you, because we're at the castle."

            "What?! Put me down! PUT ME DOWN!" Naomi yelled as she started beating his back once again.

            "Aw, I thought you had gotten used to me carrying you!" he said with slight disappointment.

            "That was when there wasn't anybody around to stare at my butt while you carried me by," she replied flatly.

            "Will you promise not to run off?"

            "Well I have no choice, do I? Anybody that sees me running from you will try and stop me."

            The man let her down, and Naomi started walking, but she deliberately went faster than the man, who she wanted to keep her distance from.

            "Now, now, you said you wouldn't run off," he said (half scolding her and half laughing at her audacity) as he took a firm hold on her shoulders and walked her the rest of the way.

            Naomi gave an exasperated grumble and reluctantly let the young man steer her into the castle, but she still had a frustrated expression that a three-year-old would have if he had to take a bath against his will. Boh fallowed them willingly, happy to be closer to getting food.

            Once they got into the castle, a very important-looking woman walked up to them. 

            Addressing the man, she asked, "Prince Miruto, are these the other two you found in the woods?"

            "Indeed they are," he said with a laugh at Naomi's expression. She was glaring at him with disbelief at how a person like _him_ could be a _prince_.

            "It seems that the other girl who was found is… er… well… The king wishes you to take these two to the grand suite on the fifth floor. The others were already brought there."

            "Why would prisoners be in there?" he asked.

            "I have to time to explain; the king wishes me to prepare the dining hall… Just bring them there and the queen will be up shortly to explain."

            "Right… okay, come with me," he said to his two 'captives'. With Boh fallowing, he began to push Naomi towards the elevator. Once inside with the door closed, he asked Naomi, "So, now that you know I'm the prince of this place, what do you have to say?"

            "That I still think you're a lecherous idiot," Naomi snapped. "And don't expect me to treat you like 'royalty' that you are, either."

            The prince laughed loudly at this and said with relief, "Oh, I have to thank you for that! It's quite refreshing to have somebody be rude to me, for once. Most women, even when I am myself around them, if you know what I mean, get all giggly and shy around me."

            Naomi was confused. "Wouldn't you, having your personality, _enjoy that?"_

            "Not after eighteen years of it. It gets rather dull. Ah, here we are," he said as the elevator door gave a loud 'ding!' and opened. "Am I going to have to steer you again, or will you come quietly?"

            Naomi had no chance to answer though, because she noticed that Boh had already gone out of the elevator and after a caterer who was wheeling around a cart of food.

            "Hey kid, get back here!" the prince ordered.

            "But I'm hungry."

            "Yeah, yeah, you can eat when we get to the room. Now let's go," he said. He started leading the way, but for some reason, he didn't control where Naomi went. She wondered why he didn't wait for an answer, but didn't ask him. She just fallowed him for the rest of the way there. As long as she was getting to Haku and Sen, and the prince wasn't touching any part of her, she was fine.

            "Right through here," he said, holding open a door. Naomi walked through after Boh, who immediately went after the food on the table. Naomi looked around at the room, and then noticed Sen, who looked like she had just woken up. 

            "Have you had the horror of meeting Prince Miruto?" Naomi asked her, pointing back to the prince, who was still standing in the doorway. He just laughed.

            "No, I've been sleeping up here. Haku is out on the balcony; he just got back from taking a bath. Help yourself to some food… or did you already have that rice last night?"

            "No. We went out looking for you and Haku, then _he_ showed up and carried me over here."

            Sen looked confused. "You remember him bringing you here? Didn't he have some servants knock you out or something?"

            "No. He took, what for him would be a pleasure to carry me, himself. He's quite perverted," she added matter-of-factly.

            "Um…," Sen began, worried at what the prince would do about being talked about as if he weren't even there.

            "Don't worry about it; I appreciate her honesty about me, actually," he said, taking a seat on a trunk at the end of Sen's bed.

            "Her… honesty?" Sen asked, hoping that it he wasn't talking about the perverted part…

            "Yep."

            Sen inched closer to the head of the bed.

            "But anyway Sen, do you know what's going on? Aren't we supposed to be prisoners?" Naomi asked.

            "Haku told me that the kind thinks we're people he was expecting… The servants here have been waiting on us, too." She looked at the prince, who was now looking very thoughtful, "Do you know why they would be expecting us?"

            "I have an idea, but it seems quite impossible. My mother is supposed to be here soon and explain though," he said as he walked over to the food and began picking at it.

            Haku came into the room from the balcony and sat next to Sen on the bed. "Good morning, your majesty," he said, nodding to the prince.

            "Hmm? You knofw fwho I ahm?" he asked with his mouth full of ham.

            "Well, the door was open," Haku replied, pointing to it.

            Speaking of open doors, the door to the hall opened, and in came the queen.

            "_Sen has arrived, sir. She'll be with you in just a few moments."_

Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Anybody here ever hear of the Kabalarian philosophy? *looks around* It's some theory on how your name effects your personality. If you go to Kabalarian dot com, and type in the name Miruto to get a report on it, you'll find that a few of the details fit the prince quite well. It's rather funny ^_^ Well, I wouldn't mind some reviews on this. Even a flame or two would be appreciated. I hope to get the next chapter up soon :D Ja ne!


	14. Fortunes and a Feast

*Slaps self on the head* Okay… when I wrote chapter 13, I had forgotten what I wanted the prince's name to be, so I made up another one. I later remembered it and planned on changing it before I uploaded it, but I didn't. So for those of you who read about a prince Mitsuko, his real name is Miruto -_- But the Kabalarian thing still works ^_^ My bad. And thanks for all the reviews! You guys are great! *hugs* By the way, I've changed the last one to say his real name, so no worries. 

In other news, this is a LONG chapter! And I do mean lengthy. Scroll down and see for yourself! Bonus! I just couldn't find a good point to stop… But hey, it's not like you'll complain :P

            Upon entering, the queen received a deep bow from everyone (that is… Sen at least tried from her position on the bed). Her majesty was a tall woman, who looked to be about forty years old. She had curly, red hair, and she wore a white kimono with a silver design on it similar to that of the one on the prince's robes. 

            "Good morning, mother!" the prince said after swallowing his mouthful of ham.

            The queen nodded her head to him, but was silent. She was looking intently at Haku and Sen. 

            "Are your names Haku and Chihiro?" she asked after a few minutes of silent thinking.

            "Yes," they both answered.

            "How did you know our names?" Haku asked.

            The queen was silent for a moment, then said, "Come with me; there is something you must see." She turned her back and began to leave the room. 

            Sen, Naomi, and Haku gave each other confused looks, and got up to fallow, Dayu on Sen's shoulder (I know… I completely forgot about him for a couple chapters. Let's just say that he's been with Sen the whole time. Kay? Kay.). Boh put down what he was eating and gave the prince a pitiful look. Prince Miruto shrugged to him and got up to fallow, taking a piece of bacon with him.

            Once everyone was close behind her, the queen led them all down the long hall. It was longer than any of them had expected, because it felt like they had been walking for at least five minutes, and they walked so far down that there were no more servants bustling about with their chores so far down. As they continued to walk in silence, the hall gradually got darker from nobody bothering to turn lights on at the end of such a long hallway. They at last came to a door at the end of it, isolated from every other part of the castle. The queen walked up to it and then turned around to speak to them. 

            "Through this door is where the previous queen of this castle lives. She is my husband's mother, and well… the reason she is so isolated is to keep people safe from her… she became insane after the death of her husband. Seven years ago, on one of my trips down here to visit her, she went into a sort of… trance. She began to mutter things about the crops, the weather, and the relationships between people living here. I caught part of what she was saying, and she said that there was a hurricane coming in precisely a week. I ignored her, knowing that she was, after all, mad. It turns out though that a week after that, there really was a hurricane. The dungeons were flooded for at least a month, major repairs had to go to the roofs, and we lost almost all of our crops to the hail. After this, I began to wonder about the woman's predictions, and as she made more, she continued to be accurate. 

            "Five and a half years ago, or six moths after the hurricane, she predicted something about a human child who would encounter this world. She kept repeating it, unlike her other predictions, so I decided to write it down and tell the king about it. Her exact words were, _'After six moons, the night will reveal a human girl who stumbled upon this world…  She will be named Chihiro, though she will be called Sen… She will be one to defeat an evil power, along with her dragon friend, Haku… But not yet; she will depart, though she will return in a matter of time… when she would be summoned by the almighty being…' _

"This… prophecy, you could call it, only slightly interested me. The evil being, I thought, wasn't very important, since there are plenty of evil creatures in the woods beyond the castle grounds. I figured she could have meant any of them. The part that interested me though was the bit about the almighty being. This world is controlled by Gyukudo, as you know, who is known by many as this 'almighty being' who was spoken of. I committed this prophecy to memory, because if Gyukudo ever has a reason to call upon the aid of a human girl, something important must be hidden in the future. And as it turns out, the Xovio Cartel, who I'm sure you've heard of, are growing with power and seeking to do only evil. They may very well be the evil who you are supposedly destined to defeat.

            "Although you say that your names are Haku and Chihiro, I am still not satisfied. I have brought you here to see if the mad woman beyond this door will recognize you." With that, the queen opened the door, and held it open for the two of them to walk through (as anxious and nervous as they were). They did as was expected, though they were as a loss for words. When Naomi, Boh, and Prince Miruto tried to walk in behind the two, the queen stopped them. 

            Speaking to Ruby, she explained, "I'm sorry, but too many people would intimidate the woman… I don't want anyone to be hurt." 

            "In that case," Sen said from the room, holding Dayu out to Naomi, "you take him. I don't want the lady to freak out."

            With that, the queen walked into the room and closed the door behind her. 

            Inside the dimly-lit room, Sen and Haku were staring at a tiny old woman, who was rocking herself in a chair, and holding a book in front of her, upside-down. She was wearing what looked like very old pajamas, and her hair was very white and tied into a bun at the top of her head.

            "Itsuki," the queen called softly to the old lady, "do these two seem familiar to you?"

            "I'm reading a book, queen Runa," the old lady said coldly. Then quickly turned her head to face them and put her book down. When she saw Sen and Haku's faces, she got up with amazing speed and rushed over to them. 

            "Just remain calm and don't move," the queen whispered to them as the mad woman began to touch their faces. She muttered under her breath to herself as she took a good look at each of the two who were presented to her. Then, out of nowhere, she jumped backwards and pointed to Sen.

            "Her… she… is the one… from my head….," she stammered before she once again began to speak wordless nonsense to herself. 

            After a few more minutes, the queen called attention to Haku and said to the old lady, "What about the boy? Do you know him, too?"

            The crazed woman stared at Haku for a moment, and then said, "He is… the dragon boy…" She then retreated back to her rocking chair.

            Haku and Sen both looked at the queen uncertainly. They were just a bit weirded out, if you can imagine. The queen motioned towards the door, signaling that they were finished there.

            Meanwhile, a certain prince of the castle was yet again showing off how easily he could beat his own record of idiocy. 

            "You know you want this bacon," he said to Naomi with what was, coincidently, a piece of bacon hanging out of his mouth. "You didn't eat anything back in you friends' room; you have to be hungry. And look," he said, pointing to the meat hanging limply over his bottom lip, "it wouldn't be the only thing you got for your benefit."

            Naomi scowled at him, and Dayu, from his perch on her shoulder, shook a fist. "No, thank you. I'd rather not eat anything covered in your slobber, let alone anything you've touched at all."

            "I'll eat it," Boh volunteered. 

            "No, it's for Naomi."

            "I told you: I don't want it."

            "Too bad," the prince said as he took the bacon from his mouth. He ripped off the part of it that he wasn't chewing on and held it out to Naomi. "You'll start to feel dizzy if you don't eat something. Now eat it."

            "I'll eat something back in the room," she reasoned. 

            The prince looked more disappointed than Naomi had expected, and she felt sorry. She reluctantly took the prince's offer and ate the stupid bacon, which seemed to cheer him up.

            'Why would he care?' Naomi thought to herself. But just then, the door opened and out came Haku, Sen, and the queen. 

            "What happened?" Naomi asked.

            "Itsuki recognized them," the queen said to the three who had been waiting in the dark hall. She then realized something and gained an excited, wide-eyed look on her face. She turned to Haku and asked, "Can I see your dragon form?"

            Haku grinned and promptly changed himself for the queen's satisfaction. After a few moments of queen Runa looking approvingly at the dragon in front of her, Haku let himself go back to him human form. 

            "This is wonderful," the queen blurted out, excitement growing in her. "We must have a feast in your honor. All five of you," she said to Haku, Sen, Naomi and Boh. "Miruto, bring them back to their room and I'll make the arrangements," she added with a broad smile as she began to rush back towards the part of the castle that actually had people in it.

            They began to walk, Sen and Haku pretty much speechless at the thought of people gorging themselves in their honor. Boh and Naomi had the same thing on their minds though: What about the seal they were supposed to give to Kamagii? But then it didn't really matter when they got it to him; as long as it was safe in the mean time. 

            "Do you plan on spending the night here?" the prince asked to nobody in particular for the sake of conversation. 

            "I think we should," said Boh. "I wouldn't want to seem rude by staying for a feast, then leaving right after our hosts provided such hospitality for us." In reality though, he just wanted to stay around food as long as he could.

            Everyone stared at him. Where the hell did he get _that_ list of vocabulary? Maybe he spends too much time listening to Yubaba negotiating with customers…

            Haku laughed after a few seconds. "Well if it's so important to you that you would take on your mother's tactics of persuading us, then I guess it would be alright," he said, still laughing.

            They had finally reached the room. When they entered it to wait for the feast in their honor, they all seemed to notice the same thing.

            It was Naomi who spoke up first, though, "Where will we all sleep? There's only one bed in here," she pointed out to prince Miruto.

            His majesty took on a very… appropriate look to go along with what he was thinking. "Well there's an empty room next to this one that shares the balcony. Then there's at least one more empty one across the hall. If there aren't enough though, I could certainly have one of you accompany me to my own bedroom…," he said as he was drawn once again to the table of food. Naomi rolled her eyes; it was like he _wanted _that bruise on his back to get bigger. As luck would have it, she had the opportunity to elbow him in the back as he turned towards the food from her side. Dayu, ever faithful and on Naomi's side, guffawed at the prince and cheered Naomi on.

            For the first time since Naomi had been taken captive of him, the prince grimaced in pain, but then took on a look that seemed to admit that he got what was coming to him. 

            "Anyway...," Haku began uncertainly after seeing Naomi's attitude towards the prince, "when we get around to sleeping arrangements, I think that Chihiro should get this room. She is, after all, supposed to be the most important one here," he added with a grin at her. 

            "You spoil her, you know that?" Naomi said. Haku just nodded, pleased with himself, causing Sen to giggle and blush from her position next to Haku on the bed. "Well, I don't really care for the balcony, so you can have the room next this one, Haku. I'll sleep across the hall. Boh can, too," she added, pointing to the child who didn't protest to it at all; he was taking care of some unfinished business with the wide assortment of breakfast foods at the table.

            "Haku, will you show me where the baths are? I want to be a bit cleaner for the feast later on," Sen said.

            "I'll come, too," Naomi said, heading towards the door.

            As Sen and Haku got up too, the prince looked at all of them as if he could find out what to do by their faces. "What am I supposed to do with the kid?"

            "Just stay in here with him until Haku gets back," Naomi said.

            The prince chuckled. "Good idea… we can do some manly bonding. Maybe I can find out how to calm you down from him," he said flippantly.

            Naomi scowled at him. She knew very well what he meant. "Just watch your mouth around him," she said coldly.

            "Will do," he said, saluting her as the three friends walked out of the room.

            Once they were on their way with Haku leading them, Sen asked Naomi about her 'relationship' with the prince.

            "_What 'relationship'? I just treat him the way he deserves to be treated. If you haven't noticed, he isn't exactly polite." Dayu gave a high-pitched sigh from Sen's shoulder at the very thought of Naomi and the prince getting together._

            "But you have to admit," Haku cut in, "from what you said he did when he first captured you, compared to how I've seen him treat you recently, he seems to have gained more respect for you than he must have for most women."

            "That's true," Sen agreed. "You said that before, he had been offending you physically… but now, he seems to only make slightly inappropriate comments."

            Naomi blushed. "So what are you getting at?"

            "Well… think about it. With his personality, you could assume that he treats women with tremendous disrespect. But then, he seems to respect you for how you react to his behavior," Sen explained. "I'd say he's got a thing for you for reasons beyond your body, at this point."

            Naomi could feel the shade of pink on her cheeks deepen. What Sen was saying is true; in the elevator that morning, he had openly thanked her for treating him the way she did. And she did think he was funny the way he managed to associate her with whatever the topic of conversation was… No! What was she thinking?!

            "We're here," Haku stated, much to Naomi's relief, as they reached their destination. "The baths are just through this door. You shouldn't have any trouble finding whatever you need. Will you be able to find your way back to the room?"

            "I'm pretty sure I'll remember which way to go. Thanks," Sen said as Haku kissed her on the forehead and walked off with Dayu now on his shoulder.

            Haku approached the door to what was now destined to be Sen's bedroom, and read the note he found on the door.

            _"I found the kid his own room to sleep in… It's the one directly across from this door… Naomi's room is to its left… I'm with the kid in his room, though. Come find me and I'll show you you're room."_

Haku turned around and found his way into Boh's room. The prince was sitting on a short bed, watching Boh wheel himself around on one of those trucks. You know, the kind that are for little kids, but they have a motor and stuff… that kind.

            "Ah, so you found it," the prince said, standing up.

            "Yup. Could you…?"

            "Show you your room? Sure."

            "Boh, stay in here while Prince Miruto shows me my room. I'll leave Dayu in here, too."

            Boh grunted a reply as he terrorized a city he had build out of blocks.

            The prince showed Haku to his room and took a seat at a table. The room looked exactly the same as Sen's, with the exception that everything was on the opposite side.

            "And you said before that the two rooms are connected by the balcony?"

            The prince nodded. "Oh by the way, my mother just told me a few minutes ago to inform you that the feast will be for dinner, so you have at least six hours to go."

            "She knows that we're staying tonight, then?"

            "Well actually, when I told her, she acted like she had already insisted that you would."

            Haku chuckled slightly. "Well, we shouldn't leave Boh by himself for too long," he said as he got up to leave.

            "Er… before we get back to the kid… can I ask you something?"

            Haku gave the prince a confused look, but nodded anyway.

            "Well…," he began, and Haku noticed that his face was now a deep shade of crimson, "doyouknowanywaythatIcouldgetthatNaomigirltosoftenuparoundme?"

            The prince had blurted it out all so fast that Haku could barely understand any of it. "…Come again?"

            "Well… You obviously know how I am to women… And see the thing is, when I am myself with them, they usually are prone to get giggly with me. I have to say, that gets rather dull after 18 years. But then there's Naomi, who is so different from most people… and her ways of slapping me about seem to have a positive effect on me. Now if I could only change her mind about me and get her not to hate me anymore, then maybe I wouldn't screw up this time…" His voice trailed off.

            "Are you saying that you think Naomi is good for you, and that you want a second chance with her, now that she's earned your respect?"

            "Yes…"

            Haku couldn't help but chortle at this confession. He found it slightly amusing the way that he and Sen were just talking about this, and now the prince was confirming all of their suspicions. "Well first off, you need to show her that you respect her. That means no more disturbing comments. For another thing…. Go out of your way to do stuff for her. I'm not saying flowers and candy or anything… just do things to show her that you pay attention. Got it?"

            "Yeah. Thanks dude," he said, getting up from his chair. "Better go check on the kid now…" They both got up and went back to Boh's room. 

            "Wow, that was one of the most relaxing baths I've ever had," Sen commented as she and Naomi walked down the hall, back to the room. Naomi happily agreed with her.

            Meanwhile, Haku and Prince Miruto were watching Boh play with his little toys as the prince found out more ways to handle women from Haku. Suddenly, the door swung open, and in came Naomi and Sen. 

            "Back already?" the prince noticed. Sen responded with a cheery nod, but Naomi just ignored the fact that the prince was even in the room. Sen walked over and sat next to Haku on the bed, where Dayu hopped onto her shoulder once again, but Naomi lingered for a moment in the doorway. Recognizing his chance, the prince sprung up to pull out a chair across from him for Naomi.

            "Have a seat," he said, bowing his head and gesturing his hand to the empty chair he had just pulled out. Naomi looked at him uncertainly, half expecting this gesture to be some way of setting Naomi up for a stunt… but she was very surprised when he didn't touch her at all as she sat down. He threw a sly grin to Haku, then sat back in his chair.

            "Oh girls, the feast is planned for dinner tonight, so now that it's about three o'clock… we have about four hours," the prince explained.

            "Can we look around the castle in the mean time?" Sen asked.

            "Sure."

            "Great, but first, are there already rooms saved for everyone to sleep in tonight?"

            "Yes, I've worked it all out. Sen, you will be in the room you were in this morning, of course; Haku will be in the next room over, Boh will be in here, and Naomi will be in the room to the left of this one. You probably already know though from the note that was on your door."

            "Mhmm… Boh, do you want to come see the rest of the castle with us?" Naomi asked.

            "Sure."

            And so, the five of them explored the rest of the castle with the prince as their tour guide for three and a half hours before the feast would begin. Yes, that's right; for three and a half hours, they looked around. And for those three and a half hours, Prince Miruto successfully began to get Naomi to warm up to him. He held doors open for her, he seemed to address her when explaining what different rooms were, he restrained from making comments or acting on them, ect… The castle was much larger than any of them had though. There were seven floors all the same size, which was extraordinarily large. In fact, they didn't even finish with the sixth floor when a voice rang through the halls.

            _"A feast for five of hour honored guests will take place in the dining hall on the first leveling thirty minutes! Everyone is welcome to celebrate! Servants have the rest of the day off!"_

            "Oh I almost forgot to tell you all: my mother was so thrilled that you're here, she left told me that she would leave some gifts for you in your rooms. She didn't tell me what they would be, but she did say that she wanted you to find them before the feast," the prince said.

            Excited, the five of them each bid the prince farewell, as he was off to prepare for the feast, and they all rushed to their rooms to see what they had received. Sen and Naomi were delighted to find kimonos of the finest silk lied out on their beds. They were white with silver trimming, similar to what the queen wore, except for the fact that it did not have the seal of the royal family on them like the king, queen, and prince all had on their clothes. As for the boys, they found robes for themselves, also made of silk, which were the same style as what the prince had. Theirs too were white with silver collars and sleeves. As for Dayu, he found himself a tiny, black hat on the nightstand next to Sen's bed.

            After quickly dressing into them, the five guests found their way to the dining hall, which was already packed with residents of the castle. They were greeted by the queen, who brought them to seats on either side of herself, the king (who had the face of his son, though he had red hair, a beard and a mustache) and the prince, who were all at a separate table from the rest of the celebratory people who were there to gorge themselves silly. 

            "May I have your attention, please!" the king called out as the five guests sat down, Dayu sitting next to Sen's plate on the table. The crowed grew silent, ready for the up-coming toast. The king raised his glass, and continued. "As many of you know, there has been a tale floating around about a human and her dragon-boy friend, who are destined to overcome Kosho and the rest of those Xovio Cartel cronies." The crowd stirred as people anxiously whispered to one another about this. "Last night, we were honored to welcome these two people to the castle. This feast is in honor of Sen and Haku, who are the ones from the prophecy, and their friends, Dayu, Naomi and Boh. Cheers to them all!" he said, thrusting his glass into the air after gesturing towards the five of them. The room was suddenly filled with glasses chinking together. The king motioned for them all to stand and take a bow. They did so, and were applauded heartily by everyone. "Let the feast begin!" said the king.

            The five guests, as they ate, were constantly praised by residents of the castle. Sen and Haku, when not interrupted by these praises, were telling the king, the queen and Dayu about Sen's last visit to the Spirit World, as well as about what they had been through so far this time around. Boh, or course, was too busy stuffing his face to talk. Naomi, surprisingly, was deep in conversation with the prince about things like the way Yubaba was running that particular region of the world. They also, at first, talked about things like their favorite foods, music, and so on. At one point, they were so low on topics, having talked the entire night, that the prince resorted to asking about such unimportant things. For example, Naomi's favorite color, what she though about the weather, what her favorite flower was… (Or was there another reason besides a lack of ideas for that one? Well duh.) 

            After three hours of  celebrating, Boh was a mess, Naomi and Prince Miruto were getting tongue-tied from talking the entire night, Sen and Haku were almost annoyed from so many questions, and Dayu, the king and queen were a bit worn out from listening so intently to every word that their honored guest were saying. 

            When the crowd began to thin, they finally called it a night and retreated to their rooms. They were all surprised to find that they had yet more gifts: pajamas! Naomi and Sen both found spaghetti-strap night dresses on their beds, and the boys found night shirts and pants to match. They were all the same patter as their other clothes: white silk with silver trimmings. 

            Dayu was instructed to keep Boh company during the night, who immediately went to sleep with no trouble at all. Naomi, after receiving an awkward good-night from the prince, slept peacefully.

            Sen, on the other hand, was just now realizing what that night had been all about. They had celebrated the fact that she was supposed to defeat demons that had a lot of power and anger. This got her rather nervous; in an attempt to calm down, she got out of bed and walked out onto the balcony. She stood there under the stars, leaning against the railing, thinking about what might happen later on. 

            Suddenly, she felt a furry nose find its way into her ear, and she heard a voice in her head say, "What's the matter, Chihiro?"

            Haku, in his dragon form, was standing behind her, nudging his snout gently into the side of her neck. 

            "I was just thinking about if that crazy old lady was right in predicting that we would actually defeat the Xovio Cartel."

            "Don't worry about it," Haku told her as she scratched him under the chin. He groaned at the wonderful feeling with his eyelids half-way closed. Then, much to Sen's surprise, he started to purr. The low rumbling in the dragon's throat calmed her immediately.

            "What about you? What are you doing out here?" Sen asked as she realized that the dragon's purring reminded her of the time she found him snoring, waiting to take her for a ride.

            Haku started to lick Sen's shoulder, working his way up her neck and responded, "I saw you come out here and I wanted to know if you were okay." Sen giggled as Haku's velvety dragon tongue worked its way behind her ear. And gradually, she felt the short, warm licks become kisses planted on her neck and a pair of arms wrap around her middle as Haku became human again. 

            Sen sighed as a pleasant shiver ran down her spine. "My hero; always there to make sure I'm never down."

            "Well somebody has to," he said. "You're too adorable to waste on frowns and lonely tears."

            "What about tears of joy?" Sen asked as her eyes watered at what he had said.

            Haku turned her around so that she was facing him and he leaned forward, bringing their foreheads together. "As long as they're for me." Then suddenly he moved back, as if surprised by something. "How did you do that?"

            "What?"

            "Oh, don't pretend that you don't know. Now tell me how you made me love you even more just now than I used to." 

            Sen started laughing, and (with some difficulty) she turned her smile into a pout, as if she had been caught. "Gee, officer, if you let me off with a warning, I promise never to— mmmmmm." 

            Haku had tried, but failed miserably in keeping from interrupting her. The way she had her bottom lip curled forward while she spoke was so irresistible, he had to kiss her. 

            "On the contrary," he began to say with his mind as his tongue explored every crevice in her mouth, "you need to promise me that you'll never stop."

            "Deal."

            Sen rested one hand on his shoulder, and she had the other behind his neck. She was enjoying that moment so much that she didn't notice her fingers kneading the skin underneath Haku's hair, much like cats sometimes do while napping. Haku completely melted and felt himself almost go limp right then and there from so many sensations at once. Reluctantly, Haku broke the kiss to carry Sen back into the room and onto her bed, holding her like a groom would carry his newly-wed wife. 

            He set her down on her back and then, still standing, started kissing her deeply again for what he thought would be the last time that night. "You can't imagine how much I don't want to go back to bed."

            "Then don't go."

            "But tomorrow we need to get up and—" Sen started to massage the back of his neck again, "—and… and… oh, screw it." He jumped over Sen and onto the bed, landing next to her on his back. Sen turned onto her side to face him and she held onto his arm. He kissed her head and gently moved a strand of hair from her face. As they lay there, Haku staring at the ceiling and Sen clinging to his arm, they fell asleep.

_"Lights out, Rin!"_

Aaah, I love fluff! And that's all it was, mind you. They kept their clothes on -_-' Well, the reason this was so long is because I didn't want to separate any of the information, because reading it all together has a better effect than taking it in slowly. Another reason is because it was an entire day that this chapter is about, and all of the events have to do with one another, so I just had to keep them all together. Please review, and thanks for reading! (Is it just me, or does that quote up there seem as equally out of place as appropriate?) Word count for this chapter: 5117! *gasp* That doesn't include all my ramblings before and after, either.


	15. Delayed

Hooray! Naomi finally has a purpose in this story! But oh my gosh… I really hope that you don't expect the rest of the chapters from now on to be so long… because they won't be. But I will try to make them longer than they normally are ^_^ Now sit back and Enjoy chapter 15!

            Sen and Haku were awoken by Naomi, already dressed, who had come to Sen's room with a question for her. She noticed that Haku was there, but didn't think anything of it at the moment.

            "Did you put these in my room, thinking that I would get all soft for that idiot of a prince?" Naomi asked, thrusting a bouquet of lilies, which happened to be her favorite, into Sen's face.

            "Huh…? No, I was here all night… so was Haku… we didn't go in your room at all," Sen replied, rubbing her eyes.

            Haku grunted when he saw the lilies that Naomi was holding. "I told him he didn't have to do flowers…," he said more to himself than Naomi.

            "You had to give him advice on how to treat me?" Naomi demanded with a hint of frustration in her voice.

            "Yeah…"

            Naomi stared blankly at him until a few seconds later, when realization hit her. "Well, by the looks of things, I guess I should be thanking you for that," she said, grinning knowingly at the two who were still in bed. 

            Sen, who had been in a (from Naomi's perspective) suspicious position with her head on Haku's chest, jumped out of bed. Haku stayed where he was, sitting up against a pile of pillows, and crossed his arms. "Nothing happened. Sen was worried so I came in here until she fell asleep. But then I fell asleep too before I could leave," he said with a shrug.

            "Mhmm… and Boh isn't a glutton," Naomi said sarcastically. "But whatever… I guess I'll just go find something to put these in…," she said as she left the room.

            Neither of the two remaining said anything for a while, when Haku turned to look at Sen and said with a grin, "You know, you're cute when you've been caught."

            "Oh, be quiet," Sen replied playfully as she threw a pillow at him. "Now go back to your own room so I can get dressed. You should change, too."

            Haku laughed to himself as he watched her get her clothes out of  a dresser, then he got up and disappeared through the balcony door.

            Meanwhile, Naomi was walking back into her room with her bouquet of lilies and a vase she had swiped off a cart, which had carelessly been left unattended by a servant, already filled with water. She entered her room, and walked over her dresser to put the flowers down, not seeing that she wasn't alone. 

            "Stealing is wrong, you know."

            Naomi nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the voice, then turned around and saw the prince, of all people, sitting merrily on her bed. 

            "But since the vase is still in the castle, I guess it can stay. Not to mention that I owe you."

            "You owe me? For what?"

            "For gracing me with your presence," he said happily.

            "Feh… am I gonna have to keep an eye on every dark corner I come across? This is the second during my entire stay here that you startle me like that for no reason."

            "Oh really? Which was the first time?"

            "When you found me in the woods," she said, putting the lilies into the vase.

            Prince Miruto gave a snort as he remembered, and said, "Well, if you think I was rude then, you should see yourself now. This entire time I've been in here, I haven't heard so much as a 'thank-you' from you."

            "You mean for finding me a room besides your own to sleep in?" she asked with a laugh. "If it was really that difficult, then thanks."

            "Well no, I meant for the flowers," he said, standing up and taking a few steps towards her.

            Naomi blushed slightly and turned from the dresser to face him. "Oh, well… thanks."

            The prince smiled warmly at her. "No problem. You know what's interesting though is that I found them along the path that I took to carry you here."

            "Are you sure you didn't get them from Haku?" she asked in a teasing manner.

            "Ha! So you know! Well just because I got advice from him doesn't mean that I get my material from him."

            "Where do you get it, then?" she asked, taking a seat on her bed.

            "From listening. I got up early to take a walk this morning and came across those lilies. Then I remembered last night that you said they were your favorite," he said simply while he thought of whether or not to sit next to her.

            'He actually remembered that?' Naomi thought. 'I thought he was just low on things to talk about…' "You take walks?" she asked, not wanting to let him see what she was really thinking.

            "Sure I do. It's a great day, after all, and it's good to get out once in a while."

            "I'm surprised that you think like that. How do you manage to be so pleasant all the time?"

            Prince Miruto finally decided to have a seat, since Naomi didn't seem frustrated or angry with him. "Well, lately I've been able to look forward to seeing, you," he said nervously. "And when I don't have that to look forward to, then it means that you're already around, so it's easy to be happy."

            Naomi felt blood rushing to her face as she looked at the prince, whose grin was getting hopelessly broader by the second. To her relief, he spoke again before she had to think of something to say.

            "But anyway, I should go talk to my parents. We still haven't worked out a way for you and your friends to get to wherever you were going when we found you."

            "You haven't? And here I was beginning to think that you were actually responsible," she said with a hint of sarcasm, yet with a smile on her face.

             "Don't you get fresh with me, or I'll have to lock you up in the dungeons," he said with his normal cheeriness as he stood up.

            Naomi closed her eyes and stuck out her tongue in an attempt to be… well, fresh. The prince just laughed, saluted her as he did when Naomi was leaving him for a bath the day before, and left. 

            After Sen finished changing, she decided to go wake up Boh. As she entered his room (after passing the ever-cheerful prince Miruto), she saw Haku already there and had gotten Boh up and dressed. Dayu was scampering around the carpet, acting like a helpless victim

            "You're fast," she said to him as she dodged a stuffed dinosaur, which had been hurtled her way after being hit by Boh in his motorized mini-truck. Haku nodded, too winded from laughing at Boh to give a verbal response.

            He finally caught his breath. "Chihiro, the prince came into my room just before I left to come here, and he asked if there was anything I wanted. I hope you don't mind that I asked him to bring some breakfast for all of us into your room."

            "No, that's okay," she replied. Then she turned to Boh and said, "Did you hear that, Boh? We're going back to my room for breakfast."

            He nodded enthusiastically as he drove over more toys. 

            "Well I guess I'll go get Naomi and tell her about it," Sen said, heading for the door.

            "Okay, I'll get Boh and Dayu in there as soon as they get hungry, which shouldn't take long."

            "Hey Naomi? We're having breakfast in my room," Sen said as she opened the door a bit.

            "What was that? Come in here, I can't here you."

            Stepping into the room, Sen repeated her announcement.

            "Okay," she said with a smile from her current position on her bed. "Oh I almost forgot to apologize," she began, now sitting up, "for the flower thing. They were from the prince." She blushed and pointed to the vase on her dresser. 

            "Forget about it. I'd be angry too if one of my other friends back home tried to set me up with some goon from school," Sen said. "….Not that the prince is a goon," she added hastily when she saw the slightly offended look on Naomi's face.

            "Yeah, well, he actually is," Naomi replied with a laugh. 

            "Oh, come on. Just admit that you like him," Sen teased.

            "Feh. But I will admit that after last night, he's at least been decent." 

            "Hehe… well, do you want to go wait for the food in my room?"

            "Sure."

            The five guests of the castle met each other in the hall on their way to Sen's room, and all entered at the same time, when they saw that their food was already spread across the table. 

            "Wow… the service here is really fast," Naomi commented.

            They all sat down around the food (Dayu, or course, next to Sen's plate again) and were about to dig in, when the prince came through the door in quite a rush. He stopped abruptly in the doorway when he saw them, and they noticed that his left sleeve was smoking a bit, his hair was frazzled, and his front was soiled with a thin later of soot. He smiled nervously at the five of them, who were looking at him, not knowing what to say.

            He gave a weak, nervous laugh and straightened up, saying, "Um… it seems that your departure has been delayed by a few… weeks."

            "What?" they asked in unison.

            "Well… you remember my psychotic grandmother, right?"

            They nodded.

            "Yes, well her magic is very powerful when she can figure out how to use it for a while… and she let herself out of her room, and… well… she sort of… destroyed the train…"

            "Does that mean we get to stay here longer?" Boh asked.

            "Yes, for three weeks… until everything is repaired."

            "Why would it take three weeks? Can't they use magic to fix it?" Sen asked.

            "Well yeah, but it takes quite a lot of it, and if they worked all day every day then they'd literally die from fatigue. Plus, they have to re-build two miles of the track and get a whole new load of fuel from the next region over. That crazy woman did quite a bit of damage… she nearly blew up the entire station… she only got half though, because she started wandering down the track… that's why two miles of it is missing."

            They were stunned. What were they supposed to do with themselves for three weeks while they waited anxiously to return to the bath house, only to be greeted by a furious Yubaba who would have their heads? They had already probably gotten her furious by taking Boh with them… but now, being gone for so long, she's probably ! Especially Sen… she was in trouble.

            "Isn't there any other way to get us there?" she asked weakly.

            "I'm sorry, but the train was out only form of traveling long distances like that."

            "Could we just walk the rest of the way like we planned before this all happened?"

            "That would take you nearly as long, I'm afraid. And with there being an entire sea between this castle and your destination, you wouldn't really be able to stop for the night in the water…"

            How could they have overlooked that at Zeniiba's house? …Did No-Face ever sleep??? But that wasn't important right now…

            "I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, but maybe if you try to think of something good that could come of this, then it might not seem so bad."

            That was true… If they were going to be stuck somewhere for three weeks, there probably wasn't a better place… Plus, if they explained everything right, Yubaba might not be as angry as they feared… But what about Sen's and Naomi's parents? They were probably worried sick… plus there was the fact that they'd already been there longer this time than before… But when they did go back home, they would be too happy over their safety to worry about where they had been. So yeah, it didn't seem so bad anymore… In fact, now they were looking forward to it. 

            The prince, who had been standing in the doorway as they contemplated their situation, noticed how they seemed to be more relaxed than when he first announced this predicament. 

            Relieved that they weren't about to tear his head off, he continued. "So of course, you'll just keep the rooms you have now. Er… is there anything else you need?"

            They all shook their heads and Haku said, "No… but did you manage to get her locked away again?" referring to insane woman who had previously been rampaging around the castle.

            "Yes, she's back in her room and sleeping."

            "…Sleeping? After all that?" Sen asked.

            "Well yeah, we had to knock her out to stop her from using any more magic…"

            Nobody said anything. They just nodded. Then Naomi asked, "Is everyone okay?"

            "Everyone's fine. I probably suffered the worst, actually, and it isn't even that bad. It's very fortunate that nobody was in the station… I think she must have scared them all off," he added with a chuckle. "But anyway… I should go clean up. Just flag down a servant if you need anything." He gave a salute, which was mostly directed towards Naomi, as he swung the door closed.

            After a few minutes of silence, Boh finally spoke up through a mouthful of waffle. "I'm glad we're staying. I like the toys here."

            This caused an almost involuntary reaction from the rest of them, and they all said the things they would most look forward to during their prolonged stay there.

            "It's very peaceful here; it'd be nice to have some time to relax," Sen said.

            "Yeah, and I wouldn't mind to get out of work at the bath house for a bit longer," Haku agreed.

            Although nobody could understand him, Dayu gave a brief string of squeals, just to get his two cents in.

            Naomi was silent. She was thinking that it's be nice to start knowing the prince better… then she noticed everyone looking at her, waiting for her to say something as if it were mandatory. 

            "Huh? Oh, well I guess with three weeks of free time, I'd start training myself with my sword… you think they have some sort of court for that here?" she asked nobody in particular.

            "Oooh… I hope so. It would be useful to get in some practice before we end up needing it," Sen replied. 

            "Nah, you don't need practice, Chihiro. After that whipping you gave Kosho, I'd say you're pretty well off," Haku said, grinning.

            Sen laughed and replied, "I would hardly call that a whipping. Besides, he was already missing an eye! The only thing I did was knock him out for a few seconds."

            Relieved that their usual state of pleasantness was restored after the somewhat unfortunate news, they continued eating in a less tense state. 

            As soon as they were getting up from their seats though, the prince entered the room yet again with another announcement. 

            "I'm sorry to interrupt anything, but I have to warn you about something… While servants were cleaning up the station, one of them noticed a spell that had been written on the wall. Its contents are rather ancient…. But anyway, it said that a few temporary changes would occur for a day at a time, and completely at random. It's nothing serious; the spell is more or less like a prank… So if you wake up one morning and notice anything abnormal, then you know the reason."

            Everyone looked at him uncertainly. "What kind of things?" Haku asked.

            "Well… stuff like… one day, there might be mud covering everything in the castle; something along those lines. But then the next day, everything would be as clean as it should be."

            Haku snorted. "Well at least now we can expect it, I guess…"

            "Yeah... Well I'll just be off then. Unless you all would rather finish your tour of the castle? There's still the seventh floor to go, which has some very interesting things there… and then there's the roof and everything outside which you haven't seen yet…"

            "Actually, we were just wondering before you came in if there's a place around here we could use to practice using our weapons," Naomi said. 

            "You mean like a training court? There's one out behind the southern wing. You're welcome to use it any time."

            "Can you show us there after we finish the tour?" Sen asked. 

            The prince was all too happy to comply, having another chance to start winning Naomi practically given to him. He smiled with his usual cheerfulness and said, "Of course! Just fallow me then; we can start with the seventh floor, go to the roof, and then see outside, where I'll show you to the training field. Are you all ready to leave or do you need to do anything before we head out?"

            "Nope, we're fine," Boh said for everyone, too excited to wait for them to reply on their own. "Let's go!"

            They all left the room, scrambled into the elevator not too far down the hall, and were on their way.

            _"If you want to go up, pull the lever to the right."_

Yeah… that was a pathetic way to end it. But hey, I needed a quote to match, and I'm running out. I hope to get the next chapter up sooner than this one did. Please review, and thanks! ^_^


	16. Seventh Floor: Candy, Souvenirs, and Clo...

~Yay! Chapter 16 is here at last! I drew some pictures of a few of the characters…. I might put them onto angelfire so you all can see, or if you want you can im me ^_^ And now onto Mary's less enthusiastic half for other news…!

Huh? Crazy? Naw, I'm perfectly sane. *Turns to wall: "right?"* But anyway, big plans await this fic… one chapter in particular (which is still to come, who knows when) is going to be either very funny, or a bit disturbing… depending on your point of view. *Yawn* Oh, and just because Haku happens to kiss Sen on the forehead rather than on the cheek, it doesn't mean that he's fixated on it. It just so happens to be that he's taller than Sen, to answer a reviewer's question.

~Hooray! Funny! Okay, now read chapter 16 and then REVIEW, people :D

This just in… *yawn* The word liqor appears in this chapter though with its normal spelling, so it might be taken out by the server… I don't know if it filters out things like that. Just know that if there is a blank spot where a word looks like it should go, there's your mystery word. Oh and I used the word for those chocolates that have liqor in them… I don't know what they're called, but I'm positive that they exist… so yeah… but at least now you won't be thinking that somebody gets stoned in this chapter, because they don't.

            If you were to ask either of the five guests which floor they liked best out of the entire castle, they'd pick the seventh, by far. They learned from Prince Miruto that it was mainly a bunch of shops, and Boh found himself to be like a kid in a candy store… which he was. One of their first stops _was a candy store, and to everyone's delight, it was mostly free._

            "FREE?" Boh asked in disbelief.

            "Yup. Most of it's free, at least. The only thing you would have to actually buy is that chocolate with liquor in the filling… but you shouldn't be eating that stuff anyway," the prince explained, even though Boh had already taken off.

            "What? That stuff is my favorite!" Naomi began. "My aunt let me try some while she was babysitting me a few years ago. I've really been wanting some more since then… but, oh well. I'll settle for some tootsie rolls," she said as she made her way towards one of the walls lined with containers of candy.

            A lot of the candy was like what you'd find in the human world, of course. Most of it was chocolate, whether dark, white, or milk, with different fillings and toppings. There was taffy of all different flavors, which was just as good as tootsie rolls, and there was an entire wall dedicated to hard candies, be they fruit-flavored, mints, or candy canes. 

            Haku and Sen both went straight for the jelly beans, taking a few of each kind and putting them into paper bags that were available for 'shoppers' (more like looters, if you ask me), while Dayu made himself at home inside a container of kompeitou (which, if you remember, is what Rin fed all the little soot balls). Boh, needless to say, was just walking along, occasionally eating a handful of whatever he passed. Naomi, being a fan of taffy, was taking mostly the small pieces of chocolate taffy that looked identical to tootsie rolls. Prince Miruto sat on the glass counter (where underneath was the liquor-filled chocolate) and spoke with the manager, who seemed to be a friend of the king's, while he waited for the rest of them. 

            As Naomi came across some jaw breakers, she stopped to take a few. She was just pulling the front of the container forward to reveal the candy, when the prince walked up to her left and opened a container of licorice and took out a piece. Then he brought his left hand around his front and held out a box of the liquor chocolates to Naomi as he looked anywhere but her. He ate the licorice, waiting for her to take the box. 

            She stared at the box for a few seconds, while Prince Miruto continued to eat more licorice. Then, when her brain registered that he was giving it to her, her face colored slightly and she smiled at him as she took it.

            "Thanks. Do you want one?" she offered, now taking off its outer layer of plastic.

            "Nah," he said, closing the licorice box, now that he had accomplished his mission.

            "Are you sure?"

            "Well… maybe just one, to get the licorice taste out of my mouth… I really hate that stuff," he confessed. 

            "But you just ate some," Naomi pointed out, confused at why he would have if he didn't even like it.

            "Well I didn't think that you'd want Sen and Haku to realize the real reason I was over here; they might never have let it go," he explained as he took a chocolate from the box held out to him.

            "Oh… I guess you're right," Naomi said simply. She had to admit: it was flattering, the way he took that into consideration. 

            He laughed quietly. "Well I'll just go tell Boh that it's time to continue the tour. Can you get the others?"

            "Yeah."

            When she didn't move, too busy staring at the box of chocolates she as holding, the prince waved his hand on front of her face. As she snapped out of her trance he gave her a salute, like he always did before he left her, and she laughed at herself. Then, without thinking, she stuck her tongue out at him before walking over to Sen and Haku. 

            'Did I just stick my tongue out at him?' she asked herself as she realized what she had done. 'Oh well… it's not like some people back home don't have their little hand jives they do with each other.' (UGH. If I see those stupid little rocket fuel kids do that woogly woogly thing *one* more time… I will crush them into bugs with my mighty replicant feet! ….Sorry…. randomness….) 

            It was only when they were leaving the candy shop that Sen noticed Naomi munching on her chocolates.

            "Hey, how did you buy those?"

            Naomi opened her mouth to answer, but then popped another chocolate in before she said anything. It was obvious that she didn't want to talk about it, which left two possibilities: she stole the chocolates, or the prince bought them for her. Sen didn't have too hard of a time figuring it out.

            Okay, so Boh's favorite floor was the seventh because of the candy, but what about the others? Their next stop was a shop of glass figurines, and the people who blew the glass worked in thee back. They got to see how the workers there made them, which Haku found particularly interesting. After watching for a while, most of the guests dispersed to look at the figurines which were set out for customers, but Haku stayed behind, mesmerized by the melted glass in the flames. 

            Out in the main area of the shop, where Sen, Naomi, Boh and Dayu were browsing (the prince just sitting in a chair, having already seen the place many times), the walls were lined with glass models of animals, birds, flowers, toys, everything. They even ogled over a tiny set of glass furniture for a while. 

            Just as they were about to have seen everything and were getting impatient with waiting for Haku, he emerged from the back, looking very pleased with himself.

            "Look what I made," he said smugly, holding up a hair clip with a dragon on it to show Sen. The dragon on it was rather small, but had a surprising amount of detail. Sen could see the way he had made the fur on its back have little ridges in it to give it texture. It had small, turquoise-colored stones for the eyes, and the tip of its tail was also turquoise as well as the longer fur on its back. Its toes were curled into fists to hold onto the actual hair clip. 

            "Oh my… that's the best thing in the whole shop! Have you done that before?" Sen asked with amazement.

            "Not once. It was a lot easier than I thought, though," he responded (without a trace of modesty), still grinning, as he clipped it into Sen's hair. "But since I made it, it was free."

            Sen hugged him, not knowing anything to say, before they were all told to run along to continue the tour.

            After walking farther along down the hall, passing over the random bathrooms and storage closets along the way, they came to Dayu and Sen's favorite part, which was a rather large room dedicated to testing new products that inventors in the castle came up with. It may not sound so fun at first, but when you consider that there was no gravity on one half of the room, your opinion changes. 

            "What would they ever need to test for in an anti-gravity field?" Sen asked as she did a cartwheel on the ceiling. 

            "You got me… but I think it helps them see how well things hold together," the prince replied, gliding through the air by kicking his feet and pulling himself forward as if he were swimming.

            "What else do they use to test stuff?" Boh asked.

            "Oh, the usual; they see if it's water proof, how much heat the product can stand, that sort of stuff."

            After floating about in the air 'till their heart's content, they reluctantly left the testing room to proceed to their next destination.

            Many of the rest of the shops they entered were filled with either toys or souvenirs. After exiting one shop which sold rare herds used for making medicine and other concoctions, they arrived at, to Naomi's delight, a store filled wall-to-wall with shelves and racks and huge loads of clothes. It was only then that Naomi started to appreciate how full all the stores were. Sen, she was happy to note, was also eager to try on a few things. 

            Boh and Dayu were hiding from each other in a few racks of clothes, and Naomi was a bit shocked at how quickly Sen was taking clothes off of the racks to try on; she had never been so enthusiastic about shopping when they went out for back-to-school clothes every summer... But then she noticed that a slightly disgruntled Haku was tailing behind her, having each shirt, dress or whatever fly directly into his arms after being stripped from their previous position wherever they used to hang.

            When she saw this, Naomi couldn't help but comment on it. "Just be happy that she has no purse for you to hold while she changes, Haku," she said with a laugh. She was glad to see that it lightened him up a bit.

            Prince Miruto, who was standing behind Naomi, was in his own fit of laughter at the sight. 

            "You wouldn't be laughing if you knew what came next," Naomi said to him.

            "Huh?" he managed to get out in-between a breath and a snort.

            "Were you expecting me to just stand here?" she asked rhetorically, taking his hand pulling him to the nearest rack of clothes. "Come on, I don't want Sen to have all the fun."

            "I— but—," he stammered as a few shirts, then a skirt or two found their way into his arms, which he never even remembered putting out in the first place. "Hey!"

            Naomi tossed him a pair of shorts. "Don't worry, I'm faster than Sen and she's already done! Just tolerate it for a few more minutes," she said.

            The prince gave a harrumph (yes, it's a real word!), though his heart wasn't really in it. He honestly didn't mind doing favors for Naomi.

            "Naomi, what do you think?" Sen asked from the doorway of a changing room. She had changed into a turquoise kimono with a slightly darker blue obi. 

            "Nice, it matches your hair clip," she replied as she made her way to the changing rooms herself (but of course, not before adding a few things to the pile in the prince's arms). When she reached the door, the prince handed over the burden he was carrying, and Naomi went in to try everything on. 

            Sen was still standing in front of the mirror outside of the changing room when she said, "Too bad we'd have to pay for all this if we ever wanted to keep it… I really like this kimono." She turned around to look at herself from a different angle in the mirror and added, "Haku, are you going to try anything on?"

            "No, I wouldn't want to find something that I like and then not be able to buy it." A sigh of agreement could be heard from Naomi behind the tall door she was dressing behind.

            "Well you're going to be here for three weeks, and I'm sure you won't want to wear the same thing for the entire time, so I could probably pull a few strings," the prince said.

            "Really?" Naomi asked as she emerged from the room, wearing a light blue tank top and white shorts.

            After hearing this good news, Sen had fun for while as she picked out a few things for Haku, Naomi and Dayu helped Boh with some of his shopping, and all the while, Prince Miruto was negotiating with the store manager to send charges to the king. After gathering everything into bags, they flagged down a servant to carry their things back to their rooms as they proceeded to the roof.

            When they got there, they all saw that it wasn't much different than the balcony outside of Sen and Haku's rooms. It was basically just a really big garden with some patio furniture placed here and there. So obviously, not much happened there, unless you consider that while the guests marveled over the variety of flowers, the prince picked some and started to braid them together out of boredom (a bit girly, but think of this: you're waiting to leave a family reunion where your most annoying relatives are, and your mother says you're leaving, but then she starts talking. Then she says you'll leave real soon, but she talks for another half hour, while some two-year-old cousins keep bugging you for a piggy back ride. That's the kind of boredom that drove him to it… though not that extreme, since they weren't there very long). 

            Their final stop was, of course, the training grounds. After seeing a few gardens, fountains, pools and all that good stuff that you'd expect to be around a castle, they finally arrived to it, where the prince started to show them where everything was. 

            They stood in am area about half the size of a football field and along its borders were a few medium-sized pieces of equipment. The six of them listened to the prince talk as they made their way underneath a near by tree, trying to escape the heat from the sun now high in the sky, the time being a couple hours after noon. 

            "You see that biggest machine over there?" Prince Miruto asked, pointing to it on the side of the field farthest from them, "that's basically something like a mini cannon… it can fire different things at you; just set it to whatever you want. All of the smallest things are moving targets. They can go pretty fast too, and they can hover a few feet above the ground. There are also some stationary targets lying around, I think. Do you mind if I stick around and watch?"

            "Nope," Sen said. "It's probably better that you do, since somebody will have to keep an eye on Boh."

            As the prince sat under the tree with Boh and Dayu, the rest of them battled with the mini cannon-like machines. The prince was very interested in seeing how their weapons worked, and was having a rather good time by the time Naomi had released the sword form of her key by tossing it into the air and catching it.  After a while, Haku suggested to Sen that she could practice while riding on him in his dragon form. It was then that the prince paid attention to the fact that he called her Chihiro, and asked Boh if he knew anything about it.

            "Why does Haku call her Chihiro if her name is Sen?"

            "Sen is the name that my mommy gave her to use while she works in the bath house. Chihiro is Sen's real name."

            "Is Naomi not Naomi's real name, then?"

            "Um… her real name isn't Naomi, but I don't know what it is. Nobody ever told me."

            "How do you know that Naomi isn't her real name, then?"

            "Because she works at the bath house. Mama always changes the names of the workers when they sign their contracts."

            Prince Miruto thought about this for a few moments and then asked, "What's your mother's name? I might have heard of her bath house."

            "Yubaba."

            Yes, the prince had heard of Yubaba's bath house. Everyone had, since Yubaba was the one who ruled that particular region of the Spirit World. So now he finally knew a little more about them! But there was still the matter of Naomi's name that was bugging him; next chance he got, he'd find out her real name.

            Lucky for him, the next chance he got happened to be when Sen, now also known by him as Chihiro, came up to him.

            "Will you hold onto this so that I don't risk breaking it?" she asked him, taking the hair clip Haku had made for her out of her hair.

            He took it from her saying, "Sure. Hey, Boh and I got a question for you."

            "What is it?"

            "What's Naomi's real name?'

            "It's Ruby… why do you ask?"

            "Boh here told be about why Haku calls you Chihiro, so I asked him what Naomi's real name was; but he didn't know, so I asked you."

            "Oh…" Sen hadn't really thought about it, but when she looked back on what had happened from when Boh first came into the picture up to now, she realized that nobody did ever tell Boh Naomi's real name. She just picked him up out of his room in the bath house without any introductions and then went from there. Come to think of it, the only reason he knew to call her Naomi was because that's what everyone else was calling her.

            Remembering what he had heard about Yubaba, the prince recalled that his mother once explained this name business to him. Not only that, but she also told him that people often forger their real names soon after they sign their contracts. "Is that why she wears that necklace with a ruby on it?"

            "Yeah. Haku gave it to her when we first got to this world. He gave me a bracelet with my name on it," she said, holding out the arm with the bracelet on it. 

            "I see. Well how much longer are you all going to be out here?"

            "I don't know; I guess we'll just keep going until we get too tired," Sen replied as Dayu scuttled up her leg, then up her body and onto her shoulder. He squealed a few times and pointed over to Boh, who was trying to climb up the tree.

            "Uh… Boh, have you ever climbed a tree before?"

            "No."

            "You should get down, then. I wouldn't want Yubaba to blame me for anything that could happen to you."

            "But I'm bored."

            "Play with Dayu."

            "Nah," he said, lifting himself up onto a branch.

            "Don't make me get you down myself," she warned.

            Boh snorted at the thought of Sen trying to drag him out of the tree.

            "I'm serious!" she said in a tone that showed she was offended that he thought she was a complete weakling.

            Boh ignored her.

            That made her angry. She lifted her hand and waved it calmly around in a circle, and Boh was immediately captured by an orange bubble. She steered the bubble onto the ground, and Boh was then released to grumble and groan as much as he wanted safely on the grass.

            The prince stared at her for a moment. "Where did you learn to do that?"

            "Well I didn't really learn… I just sort of did it one day."

            "Oh... okay."

            Sen turned to Boh and said, "Now stop trying to do things that could get you hurt while I go practice some more." She set Dayu down on Boh's head and then started walking back to Haku and Naomi.

            As the prince watched, all three of the guests who were training themselves proved to be very skilled, but he of course paid more attention to Naomi than the other two. He watched as she expertly hit each of the targets floating around her, even when they were going at top speed. What really impressed him though was that once, when there were three rather large chunks of rock flying at her from all different sides, she created a black hole and jumped into it herself instead of letting the rocks fly through it. Whether it was an accident (probably was) or not didn't matter because she then reappeared out of thin air after the three rocks had collided and were on the ground. 

            Sen and Haku were also in major butt-kicking mode, and proved that by doing some rather fancy acrobatics in the air while dodging and/or blocking rocks hurled at them and also knocking down every target that came whizzing their way.

            However, after seeing Naomi and having his thought mainly on her as always, Prince Miruto couldn't help but made a scene over her astonishing performance. As the three gathered around the big ol' tree he was sitting under with the sun beginning to set, the prince jumped to his feet to congratulate her.

            "I dub thee: Ruby, conqueror of the training field!" he said very dramatically as he put a crown of flowers on her head (they just happened to be the flowers he was braiding up on the roof…. What, you thought that all my ranting over the fact that it was girlish, but you could live with it, was for nothing? I think not. As you can see, there was a purpose to that besides to make that paragraph a bit longer).

            "Uh," Naomi said with a smile as she began to blush. "Hey wait— how do you know my name?"

            "Sen told me."

            Naomi gave a slightly exasperated look to Sen that only she could see. Sen shrugged in return.

            "So what do you plan on doing now?" the prince asked.

            "I'm hungry. I want dinner," Boh said.

            "I guess we're going to go back and eat dinner then," Haku stated almost needlessly.

            "Are we eating in my room again?" Sen asked as they started walking.

            "I guess so," Naomi replied. "Will you be joining us?" she then asked Prince Miruto.

            He grinned and said, "Well I was just going to have dinner with my parents, but do you _want me to join you?"_

            They all looked at her as if slightly surprised, except for the prince, who was looking at her very haughtily. Naomi could feel her face burn red, and she replied, "Do whatever you want," trying not to sound too hopeful.

            "Well I think I want to join you, seeing as how I've been having a good day with you all so far, if it's all the same to you—"

            "Prince Miruto!" a voice called. They turned to see that it was the same woman who had told the prince to bring Naomi and Boh to Sen's room when they first arrived at the castle, and Haku recognized her as the king's advisor. "The king and queen need you up to dinner as soon as you can get there; they need to discuss the spell that was cast on the castle this morning."

            "The one that affects the castle on any given day?"

            "Yes."

            He sighed with disappointment. But oh well, there are still three weeks… "Okay, I'll just go now then. See you all tomorrow," he said, giving his traditional salute as he fallowed the advisor into the castle. Naomi just barely managed not to stick her tongue out at him; she wasn't about to do that in front of five other people if you didn't include the prince.

            After they had finished their dinner, the five of them were quite satisfied with that day's activities. They would definitely sleep well that night after the training they had gone through and especially after taking a long bath. All they could do was hope that the next day didn't bring one of those temporary changes to stifle their good moods. 

            As Naomi and Sen emerged from the bathroom, their towels wrapped over their heads like turbans to keep their wet hair out of the way and dressed in new pajamas, courtesy of the prince, Sen wondered if Haku had already finished and had put Boh to bed, seeing that a pair of rather large baby feet had made a trail from water still on their bottoms. God, his feet were huge… probably from all the sweets he ate… sweets… candy… chocolate… 

            "Naomi, the prince got you those chocolates, didn't he," Sen seemed to insist rather than ask.

            "Yeah… I think I still have a few; do you want to try one?" she offered, trying to keep the topic away from Prince Miruto.

            "No, thanks. But has he actually said anything to you yet?"

            "What do you mean?"

            "Oh, never mind, we're already at our rooms. G'night," she said before she let out a yawn.

            "See you tomorrow," Naomi replied as she opened her door to walk in.

            When she entered, she found Prince Miruto waiting in the same spot on her bed that he had sat in that very morning.

            "You are impossible," she said to him, referring to the fact that she was very groggy from a workout fallowed by a very filling meal and a bath; a combination that is certain to put anyone directly to sleep, and now he was in her room while she had absolutely no will to think up witty comments to trade with him.

            "Don't worry; I just wanted to know if you had any chocolate left. That stuff _is very good; I'm not surprised that it's your favorite."_

            She grunted tiredly and took the box of chocolate out of one of her bags. She tossed it over to him and said, "Have as much as you want, and please get off of my bed. I want to go to sleep."

            "I can tell," he said as he stood up and set the box down on her dresser. "But I only want one, so I'll leave the box here." He opened it and popped a piece into his mouth, the put the lid back on it and turned around to see Naomi sanding a few feet in front of him. 

            "I need to thank you."

            "But you already did in the candy store. You don't have to thank me twice," he said happily.

            "No, I meant for changing," she said quietly. "You were really getting on my nerves before you stopped the perverted act," she added quickly before he thought too much of it.

            Prince Miruto smiled at her, but said nothing.

            "Good thing I came along to whip you into shape," she said, trying to fill the empty silence. 

            "Well I may have changed _because_ of you," he admitted, "but I also changed _for_ you."

            Then there was a slightly uncomfortable silence in which Naomi thought of what to do next. She was sleepy and wanted to go to bed… so she stuck out her tongue, as if dismissing the prince so she could sleep.

            To her relief, he took the hint and chuckled quietly before saluting her and leaving the room, and she promptly re-acquainted her head with the soft pillow on her bed.

            Four days had passed since they learned that their departure would be delayed, and the guests (as well as everyone else in the castle) were getting a bit tense when nothing had happened yet from the spell that was supposedly placed on the castle. Each morning when they woke up, they look around anxiously, looking for any changes that might not be too pleasant, but they always found none. They were beginning to wonder if anything would happen at all, but then also considered the fact that they were also told that the changes would occur randomly as well as be only temporary.

            The lack of changes to throw anyone out of a good mood worked well for the prince though, because he found that Naomi was getting friendlier with him in his recent efforts to woo her (Woo… that's a funny word… but then there aren't really any good synonyms to get the same point across, so there you go).This was evident to the rest of the guests as well who never said anything about Naomi's change of heart, though they mentally raised eyebrows whenever she was inclined to tease (as in make jokes and maybe slap him lightly on the head) the prince in a manner to suggest that she didn't mind his company, which might be a slight understatement. She even began to talk about him when he wasn't around… weird.

            But back to the spell (or curse, whatever); on the fifth day that nothing seemed to happen, the prince managed to catch all five of the guests having breakfast that morning in Sen's room, which seemed to be their favorite meeting place.

            "You remember five days ago, when I was summoned to have dinner with my parents to talk about this?"

            They nodded in-between chews.

            "Well this is exactly the reason. Through the past, there have been times when this spell has been different than it should be… When that happened, the changes seemed not to come at random days, but one immediately after the other for a whole week. And since my dear old granny isn't exactly in her right mind, my parents assumed that this would happen, and so it seems that it has."

            "So what? They'd come one way or the other… I say it's better to get them over with all at once," Naomi said.

            "I agree," he said as he took a seat between Naomi and Boh, "but they end up being a bit more extreme when this happens." Then he nonchalantly took a piece of sausage from Naomi's plate, and she reacted with a snort of what seemed to be amusement. The sausage was, after all, right in front of him. This earned them some confused looks from the other guests, but neither seemed to notice.

            "Do you think you're just gonna get away with that?" Naomi asked.

            "No; I also think that I'm gonna get away with a potato wedge," he said as he took one from her plate. Naomi laughed. He liked it when she laughed… "And a sip of your juice to wash it all down," he added for good measure as he took that sip. Naomi laughed again.

            "Well I should go now," he said, standing up, "I have to monitor the repairs for the train and stuff. See ya." He gave a salute from the doorway before closing it, and Naomi stuck out her tongue at the closed door. Nobody saw her though, including her friends around the table, because they had watched him go. They turned back to their food and returned to the conversation they had been in before Prince Miruto had come in, and the rest of the day after that passed by like the five days before had.

_"They're not spicy enough!"_

Don't even ask me why I put that quote there. Like I said a chapter or two before, I'm running out. Oh and yes, somebody *did* say that in the movie. It was sometime around either the stink/river spirit or No-Face… not sure which, but it was one of those frog dudes and he just ran across the screen with a big plate of food in each hand and said it. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to stop laughing when I noticed it about the third time I watched it… but yeah, so anyway… 

This chapter only took longer than I hoped because I was struggling with Naomi and Miruto… I had to delete some stuff because it was a bit too fluffy considering that Naomi only learned his name the day before… so then I had to think up more stuff to fill that in (which I did today, after not sleeping for the entire night… seriously… I'm only a little tired, but I feel all…silly…)… but whatever. Oh and don't worry, the stuff I deleted will come, just not so soon ^_^ Now please review!


	17. A Bizarre Week of Hocus Pocus

Hey, remember that chapter I mentioned that was either going to send you into a fit of giggles, or make you want to die of embarrassment (me, it would be both)? Well this is it ^_^ I was thinking that there would be a few more chapters before it, but I made the last one longer than I expected, so yeah. This one will be long, too ^_^ In fact, it's twice as long as chapter 14!!! I'm just so nice to you all :D Now read chapter 17 and don't forget to give me more reviews! And don't mind any mistakes hiding in there… I wanted to get it up sooner so I didn't read it over first. *rubs hands together greedily before typing the chapter…* Oh and sorry this one took so long, but it's got 11,103 words, and that doesn't include my before and after author's notes! 

~Sunday~

It was a Sunday morning, exactly one week after the mishap with the train and curse business, and it _would_ have been a great morning for Sen to wake up, had a camel not been chewing on her bangs while they were still attached to her scalp… What the hell? Sen stayed still, waiting for it to go away, and it did after a while… but not quite what she had expected. It just sort of… disappeared into thin air. She decided to go ask Haku if she had been showing any signs of insanity…

When she entered his room from the balcony door though, she found him backed up against the head board of his bead, having a staring contest with a porcupine, which was seated comfortably at the foot of the bed. Seconds later, it disappeared much the same way that the camel had. 

Sen was about to ask him a question, when they heard Naomi calling for them from Sen's room. They walked towards her voice to find that she was as confused as they were, as well as a bit ticked off.

"Sen, I woke up and there was a chimp trying on all my clothes!"

"At least it wasn't a camel chewing on your hair…" Sen mumbled.

"Or a porcupine giving you the evil eye," Haku said.

"You got strange wake-up calls, too?"

They nodded.

Then Sen all but bolted towards the door to the hall.

"What is it?" Haku asked, a bit shocked by what she started to do so suddenly.

"I have to make sure Boh is okay!" And she was out the door.

Sen threw the door open to Boh's room, only to be greeted by a turkey that materialized out of thin air and flew into her, knocking her over. Then it continued past her and into the hall, where it strutted for a bit, then disappeared like the rest of the animals. 

Sen got up, picked a few feathers out of her hair, and looked towards Boh's bed, where he was intently watching a sea otter bat Dayu around. After Dayu spat a string of what must have been rather harsh profanity to the otter, it vanished.

"How come you didn't tell me there was a petting zoo here?" Boh asked innocently. He obviously didn't think that this was anything out of the ordinary…

"Because there isn't one," Naomi replied, dodging a toad as it hopped between her feet and towards the open door. She fallowed it with her eyes and then noticed Prince Miruto standing in the doorway.

"It's Sunday, the first day of the week, and so the first… er… change, if you can still even call it that anymore, has happened. I just hope that nothing dangerous pops up," the prince said as he looked down the hall from the open door nervously. Apparently he had been trying to lose a herd of goats that seemed to have a for the taste of his pant legs. 

"So we're gonna have to avoid animals appearing in our faces all day?" Haku asked with a sigh, not quite liking the idea.

"Yeah, but they go away after a while. And at least it's only for today," he said weakly, trying to point out a good side.

  The rest of the day wasn't a very productive one, if you can imagine. They tried to practice with their weapons for a few hours, but they were constantly faced with random animals getting in their way, whether they tripped over them or were forced to try to avoid killing them.

Once they tried locking themselves in their rooms to try and escape the completely random effects of the curse, but the animals would just materialize in their rooms anyway, making it pointless. 

At night, when they tried to have a bath, they were faced with the unsettling fact that one couldn't fill a tub with water without also filling it with fish. Unfortunately, they never ate a single bite either, seeing as the chefs couldn't even make a sandwich without spreading mayonnaise over the occasional lizard that happened to find its way on the bread.

            But lucky for them, nothing dangerous actually showed up the whole day. There was one incident, however, that included a rather questionable octopus that had attached itself to the end of the table in Sen's room while she tried to sleep; and it remained there, giving her a strange look for all of the few minutes it existed before its disappearance. Needless to say, she had trouble sleeping after that. 

            Which goes along with the next problem: how were they supposed to sleep when there happened to be distractions all around them that were rather hard to ignore? Don't ask me how, but they managed one way or another… perhaps it was easier since the animals got smaller as the night became darker.

~Monday~

            Naomi was peacefully sleeping after a hard day's work of keeping unwelcome company out of her personal space, when something woke her up suddenly. She didn't hear anything out of the ordinary… but then she looked around to see if it had anything to do with the curse. Nothing seemed to be different… she scratched her head. What had woken her up? 

            She scratched her head again. Then she scratched her arm. And her side. And her leg. And her neck. And soon she was rolling quite uncomfortably in her bed from trying to scratch every space of her itching skin. Damn curse… if all of the effects were this annoying, then she'd… well… she didn't know. But she liked the idea about taking sleeping pill so that she'd be unconscious for the whole thing… 

            Better go see if she had any of that body lotion she got a few days ago left… if she was going to be scratching all day, she wouldn't want to scratch her skin raw.

            "Are they ALL going to be this awkward?!" she heard from Sen's room. She gave up her search from one drawer of her dresser for her lotion to listen. All she could hear were annoyed grunts.

            She stepped out of her room and into the hall, where she could see through Sen's open door that Haku was in there with her, and Sen was scratching his back while rubbing her own against the edge of the balcony door. When Sen said it was awkward, that was an understatement; to add onto their already difficult situation, they both seemed to wander towards anything in the room that might relieve them. As a result, Sen had stretched her arm to its full length to scratch Haku's back as she used a chair leg a few feet off to calm the itching on her ankle, and her other hand was furiously scratching at her hip. Haku, with his back to Sen, was also trying to use the door to itch his head as he used one hand to scratch his knee and the other to keep his balance, having only one foot on the ground.

            Naomi stared at the sight and dumbly scratched at herself.

            This was going to be a long day.

            …Especially when they all realized what Boh would be doing the whole time: complaining.

            Yup… quite a long day, indeed. They all were very reluctant to do much in their current states, having their hands already full with their new (and only, it seemed) purpose for that day, which was to scratch, in case I haven't made that clear yet. But even if they did want to do anything else, they found it very difficult to.

            They didn't even bother with training that day, since they would be constantly distracted much like the day before. 

            They managed to get in a meal or two, but they weren't very mouth-watering… whoever was cooking this must have been too busy scratching or something, because they seemed to have been distracted and so the food was very heavy on the spices. 

            The only real advantage from this was that they were abnormally clean after their baths, since they scrubbed harder than usual in futile attempts to stop the itching. 

            When it came time to sleep though, it was almost hopeless. They spent a few hours shifting uncomfortably in their beds, but then were relieved that the itching was less intense as it grew darker, much like yesterday's alteration of their lives had done. 

~Tuesday~

            'Maybe it was a fluke…? It was supposed to go on for the whole week… but nothing is different,' the prince thought to himself as he entered his room again; he had taken a short walk down the hall to investigate, but he hadn't found anything. There was always the chance that it had to be set off be something though… he wondered what might need to happen for anyone to find out what had changed over the night.

            He got his answer during breakfast in Sen's room. They had already taken seats around the table (he sat next to Naomi, of course), and were just about getting impatient when the door opened and a chef came in, looking very put off. They also noted with some irritation that he was empty-handed.

            If they had eaten three decent meals a day for what days had already passed that week, they might not have reacted so badly. But when they found that everything that was digestible in the castle had turned to ketchup, they basically lost their minds. Think about it: you're haven't eaten properly in the past two days, so what's one of the top things on your to-do list? Stuff yourself, that's what. Now imagine that you are finally about to eat something, and all there is that's available to you is… ketchup. Now I don't care how much you like the stuff, because I'm sure that nobody in their right mind would try to make an entire meal out of pure ketchup. It's just not done. 

            Neither is making a bath out of ketchup. But that, to their dismay, is what happened when they ran the water; everything in the castle that was digestible had been turned to ketchup. Yes, even the water. And water, if you didn't know, happens to be digestible. So they lived through yet another unclean and hungry day in the cursed castle. There was the opportunity to train, but they never got around to it since they didn't have the energy after being deprived of food. They got to sleep alright though; it was easy after griping so relentlessly for the whole day.

~Wednesday~

            A fairly bored little ball of soot was lounging about the top of Boh's dresser as he waited for the rest of the party to wake up and gather in Sen's room for breakfast. As he passed the mirror, he found something different about himself, but couldn't quite put his finger on it… He was still black, he had all of his limbs, he was the same size, so what had changed? 

            He scrutinized his reflection for a bit more, and noticed that he in fact was not the same size. A closer look showed that he was missing something… hey! He wasn't fuzzy anymore! That made him seem slightly smaller, not having any fluff to make him look bigger and 'tougher'.

            Dayu looked over to Boh to see if he had gone bald too, but then mentally slapped himself at his own forgetfulness. Boh was always bald. 

            Two girlish screams from the room to the right told him that he wasn't the only victim. 

            Those screams had been emitted when Sen had woken up Naomi. Naomi screamed when she saw herself in the mirror, and Sen screamed when she saw Naomi. She hadn't noticed her lack of hair before Naomi had not at all subtly pointed it out to her.

            "I'm not leaving this room," Naomi said flatly as she dug for some hats in her closet. One for her and one for Sen, who wasn't leaving either.

            But unless they wanted to go another day without a bath or any food, they'd have to open the door sometime. Oh well… it would only be the chef who saw them and anyone they passed on their way to the bathroom, and they had hats, so it wasn't too bad…

            A thought suddenly occurred to Sen. "I wonder how the others look," she said to Naomi, who laughed at the thought of a bald Haku and Prince Miruto.

            "Hopefully they don't come knocking to try and get us out of here… I'm not letting anyone else see me like this," Naomi said.

            "Me neither, but at least there isn't anything in the way of a good meal today."

            "Thank heavens for that."

            Unfortunately for the girls, their knights-in-shining-scalps did come a-knocking to see them. They spent a large chunk of the day sitting outside of the door, begging for them to come out and do something, but Sen and Naomi disregarded them. 

            Until one comment sent them into a hysterical condition as they laughed to the point of being silent from neglecting the need to inhale after a while. 

            It was the prince who said it. "Come on, you have to come out sometime! It's not like you can spend the entire day braiding each other's hair!"

            "Is that what you think girls do?" Naomi asked through the door. 

            "Uh…"

            Out in the hall, Haku shook his head and shared a moment of laughter with the girls. That guy could be so clueless at times.

~Thursday~

            When Boh emerged from the deep, coma-like sleep he was in, he was confused to see that it was still dark in his room. He glanced out the window and saw that the sun was up, but no light came into his room, leaving it pitch black. He strained his eyes to try and see any of his toys lying haphazardly on the ground, but he couldn't see anything.

            His door opened, and then he heard the prince say, "Everyone in the castle is spending the day outside, kid. The curse today is keeping all light from shining in here… including sunlight."

            Boh grunted tiredly, having just woken up, and narrowly avoided stepping on his toys as he felt his way to the door with Dayu on his shoulder.

            After he had gotten Haku, Boh and Dayu into Sen's room while they waited before leaving the castle, the prince edged along the wall to Naomi's room at last.

            He reached her door and opened it after groping for the knob a few moments, and walked up to her bed without needing the wall as a guide; he'd stopped in here to wait for her with a question enough times to know his way there.

            From the sound of her breathing, Prince Miruto assumed that she was lying on her side with her back to him, so he felt around for her shoulder. He found it, and shook her until she woke up.

            "Hrratsf… nnt mf sshoulrr…" she mumbled.

            "Huh?"

            Naomi had already been awake for a few seconds before he shook her, and she noticed how dark it was, despite the sun being in the sky. Lucky for the prince, she didn't blame him for missing his target. "I said… that's not my shoulder…"

            He stared into darkness for a moment, his hand still lingering on what he had mistaken as something else. "Well then what— oh… Oh!" he said and quickly jumped back and removed his hand. "Sorry," he mumbled with a hint of embarrassment.

            "Forget it." After Prince Miruto had been going so long without any trace of his previous ways, Naomi could forgive him more easily for this… she was still a bit embarrassed herself though. "What do you want?"

            "Uh… sorry… I came to wake you up because everyone is heading outside where there's actually some light. The others are waiting in Sen's room."

            "Okay, let's go then. And stop apologizing. I forgive you."

            "Oh okay…" he said. His voice trailed off as he felt Naomi grip his sleeve. It was obvious enough why she did, but he had been distracted by how easily she forgave him… she trusted him more than he thought…

            "Are we going or not?"

            He snapped back into reality and replied, "Yeah."

            "Lead the way then."

            The trip outside of the castle was a lot harder than anyone anticipated, mainly because they had to try a few times before pushing the correct button in the elevator. It was very annoying that they could only know they had the wrong floor when they failed to find the exit on the walls of levels 2, 5, and 3. Once they finally had the right button, they got to the first floor, where they could get out into the light.

            But when they were getting out of the elevator, Prince Miruto could have sworn that he heard Naomi tell somebody to watch where they put their hands. She'd been completely understanding with him, but now she was obviously a bit offended when somebody brushed her thigh in the dark, not to mention crowded elevator (even though it was an accident, and a far less evocative one than what he had done). He was absolutely thrilled that she was so at ease with him at this point.

            Despite the fact that everything in the castle was basically inaccessible, everybody had a very good day, considering how the week had been so far. Their meals were grilled in very festive cook-outs, and there was still a lot to do even though they were condemned outdoors.

            Sen and the gang practiced with their weapons, which they thankfully had brought with them, and Prince Miruto was more than happy to watch from the sidelines with Boh and Dayu. The only thing that might have put a damper on their high spirits was the fact that everyone was still in their pajamas. Nobody had bothered to try and change in such dark rooms. However, this only made things better, if anything, because they found that they were a lot more comfortable than if they had bothered to dress.

            But nobody was as happy with this as the prince. The fact that Naomi was still in her pj's seemed to inadvertently make her act… cuddly.

            One thing that showed this happened while they stood in line to get some of what the chefs had managed to grill for breakfast. He was in the front of the line, fallowed by Naomi, then Sen, Haku, and finally Boh and Dayu. Haku and Sen were talking about something or other when Boh interrupted them by shoving a big, slimy bullfrog between them (not to be rude, of course. He just wanted to show them what he caught). When Sen jumped away, she accidentally bumped into Naomi, who then was knocked into Prince Miruto. Naomi apologized and then backed away, but she may as well have just stayed where she was since she didn't put much space between them at all. And obviously, the prince wasn't much inclined to move either until the rest of the line did. 

            Another act of cuddliness on Naomi's part was while they were training. They had been going for maybe an hour and a half when Naomi stopped before Sen and Haku and decided to wait for them under the tree with Boh, Dayu and the prince. Prince Miruto had stopped watching them for a while to lie on his back in the grass and hadn't noticed that Naomi was coming until she was lying next to him, and she was close enough for their arms to have made contact if the prince didn't have his behind his head.

            "Worn out already?" he asked conversationally.

            "No, I just don't feel like working very hard today. I've actually been having a very good day compared to the previous four this week."

            "Pff. I say you're just lazy," he joked.

            "Yeah, and you say a lot of things that are completely off," she returned with a small laugh. She elbowed him slightly in his side, but too gently to have actually hurt. Then her arm came to rest where it was, still touching Prince Miruto's side. Not that he was complaining.

            So the prince was obviously having a good day so far, but one last thing that Naomi did topped it all off.

            While they were eating dinner out on the grass, Haku decided to pick off of Sen's plate instead of going back to get more food. She didn't mind it the first few times, but then he just kept picking and picking, and he didn't do a very good job of looking innocent. One thing led to another and somehow they wound up in a tickle fight. 

            The four of them who weren't occupied with this just looked on with amusement, until Naomi grinned maliciously at the prince. Before he knew it, she had him pinned down on the ground and was tickling him to death. 

            Yeah, that was fun. And needless to say, they all slept well that night.

~Friday~

            "Wake up, sleepy," Haku said quietly to Sen.

            Sen opened her eyes and Saw Haku's face only inches away from hers. In his current position, straddled over her stomach, he would have been sitting on her if his forelegs hadn't been flat on the bed and his hands holding him up near her arms. She smiled at him. "Good morning."

            "Mhmm," Haku said and lowered his face to her neck so he could make a trail of kisses up to her jaw line.

            "Why are you so happy this mo—" Sen began, but was cut off when Haku reached her mouth, and she noticed the he took full advantage of the fact that it was already open.

            Then Prince Miruto came into the room. Sen lifted Haku's head away a bit so that she could see what the prince wanted, so Haku decided to snack on her ear until she was finished talking. 

            "Where's Naomi? She's not in her room," he said from the doorway.

            "Maybe she went to wake up Boh," Sen suggested. She was desperately trying not to be distracted by Haku's breath tickling her as he inhaled deeply and then let it out in a contented sigh. "Why?" she asked, hoping that he wouldn't say anything about Haku being on top of her and all.

            The prince was staring at the ground with a stupid smile plastered on his face. "Huh? Oh, no reason." Then he left with a very noticeable bounce to his step.

            As soon as the door was closed, Haku immediately went back to kissing Sen. "What's gotten into you?" she asked Haku through her mind so that she wouldn't interrupt him. As confused as she was, she couldn't deny that she was enjoying it.

            "…Donno," he replied after thinking for a while.

            "Well let me get up now. I want to get some breakfast."

            Haku didn't comply with what she said at all. The only form of acknowledgement that he gave was that he lowered himself a bit closer to her, pinning her more tightly to her bed. "Don't go."

            "But Boh will eventually come in here and see us, and that would be embarrassing, not to mention uncomfortable to explain to Yubaba for corrupting his mind," she reasoned. She wasn't really worried about that though… she was just confused over why Haku was being like this all of the sudden. If it was the curse, then she better go warn Naomi about the prince… he did look suspiciously cheerful; even more so than was normal for him…

            "But I don't want you to leave," he complained as he slid his arms underneath her to pull her closer, if that was even possible.

            Haku was obviously not going to let her go, so she decided to get him off of her with her own methods. He was, for some reason (the curse, no doubt), very inclined to… uh… be with her, so if she could use that to get him off of her, she'd be good to go. Since he was still kissing her, she decided that the best way to do this would be to return the favor, only with more forwardness than even he was showing. That way she could…

            Yes, it worked. He took her action as a sign that she accepted him, and he let his guard down. Now she could get him to roll off of her, which would be easy enough. All she had to do was turn onto her side with her arms around him to make him think that she was staying… and when she did that, she got on her knees and hovered over him, just to be sure that he wasn't aware of what she was doing. So after a few seconds of this, she had an easy time backing away and planting her feet on the ground.

            "Hey!" Haku said with a look of confusion. 

            "I need to go see Naomi," Sen said as she made her way towards the door. "Just try not to think about me… or you might… get that way again."

            "Would that be a bad thing?"

            "No, but you can't really help it. It's part of the curse… just stay here."

            After Sen was out the door, Haku started to feel lonely… so he fallowed her.

            Sen couldn't help but notice a few chefs stalking a maid as she walked across the hall… She opened Boh's door and walked in to a very confusing scene.

            The prince seemed to have sat himself on a chair in the middle of the room with his hands underneath him for who knows why, and he was arguing with Boh over something. Naomi was standing behind him and Boh was in front of him. Occasionally, Boh would give Naomi a strange look and make his way around the chair towards her, but Naomi also walked around the prince in the chair to avoid the kid. When she did, the prince would look as if he got into a trance as she passed the front of him. Once Boh was back in front of Prince Miruto, he snapped out of it and started arguing with Boh again. 

            "Stay away from her!" the prince told Boh.

            "But I want somebody to play with!" 

            "Play with the soot ball!"

            Speaking of Dayu, he had made his way up Sen's body and was now hugging her arm. Haku got jealous for some reason and picked up Dayu, then tossed him onto Boh's bed.

            "Haku, he didn't do anything to deserve that; he does that every morning. And I told you to stay in my room…"

            "But I missed you."

            "But I told you to stay where you were—"

            "—just stay away from her, got it?!"

            "No! I'm bored and I want somebody to play cars with me!"

            "Again, play with the soot ball!!!"

            "But he's no fun—"

            "—SHUT UP!" Naomi shouted.

            Everyone stopped talking and looked at her.

            "What's going on? Prince Miruto, why are you sitting on your hands, why won't you let Boh play with me, why were you looking for me in the first place, and Sen, what is it you came in here for???" she asked from behind the prince's chair.

            They all started talking to her at once, and she was already confused enough as it was, so she got a bit more frustrated. "One at a time! Prince Miruto, answer me first. Why are you sitting on your hands?"

            "So that I won't lose control, like this kid over here," he said resentfully, tossing his head towards Boh.

            "Lose control over what?"

            "Myself."

            'That didn't make much sense…' "Okay, but now why won't you let him play with me?"

            "Because he might lose control."

            'What is he talking about?' "Why were you looking for me in the first place?"

            "Because I had almost lost control."

            'Lose control over _what_? Maybe today's curse made him lose his mind…' "Sen, why were you looking for me?"

            "To warn you that the prince might lose control."

            "_What are you all talking about?! What would Boh and the prince lose control over, and why would it be so terrible that they have to shout at each other over it?"_

            "It's because of the curse. All the males in the castle seem to be… possessive… over the women here… and…," Sen answered vaguely.

            "And what?"

            "Randy," the prince said bluntly, and without any sign that what he just said effected him at all.

            "Who's Randy?" Naomi asked, thinking that he just called out somebody's name.

            "They are," Sen said and gestured to Haku and the prince.

            "Huh?"

            The prince made a noise that sounded very close to a growl. "I hate being like this… it's hard to keep from doing anything…"

            "What do you mean, 'anything'?" 

            The prince was silent, so Sen answered for him. "He means anything like… touching you in ways he isn't welcome to do so."

            Naomi blinked with mild shock. "How do you know that?"

            "Because of the way Haku was acting when I woke up… he almost didn't give me a choice of whether or not to let him… uh… start something," she said, trying to pick her words carefully so as not to sound too suggestive, but still tell the whole truth.

            Naomi stared at Sen for a few seconds before turning to Boh with a very unnerved look about her. It'd just hit her that randy was being used as an adjective rather than a name… and maybe it'd be better to avoid Boh today… She looked back to Sen while lifting a finger to point at the prince and asked, "So he's been arguing with Boh over me?"

            "I guess so… wait, Boh is acting that way, too?" she asked, alarmed that she may need to avoid him as well. As soon as she said it, Haku scowled at Boh and inched closer to Sen. 

            "Acting like what?" Boh asked in his usual clueless tone. He didn't seem any different… Haku and the prince were probably just being overly possessive. 

            "This is going to drive me insane… I can't just sit here all day… but then if I so much as look at Naomi, I might do something that I really don't want to," Prince Miruto said. Then he laughed to himself and mumbled something about liking the fact that Naomi's pajamas fit her form the way they did.

            'Does he even have a choice of what to think…?' Naomi thought to herself. "Is it really that hard to just ignore me?"

            "Yes."

            "Oh…"

            "What are we going to do about it? Should we just stay in our own rooms for the day?" Sen asked them all.

            "No," Haku said instantly.

            "Why not?"

            "Because I'd miss you."

            Obviously, Sen and Naomi, being the only ones without tainted minds, would have to make the decisions. "I think Naomi and I should just stay away from you all. It'll be easier for everyone."

            "Okay," Naomi said and started walking out the door with Sen. "Let's just stay in your room, Sen. It's bigger and has the balcony…" Her voice trailed off as they walked across the hall and into Sen's room. Dayu, Boh, Haku and Prince Miruto all heard Sen lock the door and all were suddenly clueless as to what to do with themselves.

            "Boh, just stay in here and ask a servant for anything you need. I'm going to my room," the prince said abruptly. He stood from his chair and walked out the open door, but stopped in his tracks at the sound coming from Sen's room. It was only the two girls talking, but he could hear Naomi and was suddenly very calm. He stood there in the same sort of trance that he had gone into every time Naomi walked in front of him while he was arguing with Boh.

            Back inside of Boh's room, Haku panicked somewhat against his will. He didn't normally feel so helpless without Sen… but now that she was out of his reach, he was worried about her and was very, _very_ lonesome. He couldn't just go through the day completely without her… he had to be able to hold her… or see her… or at least hear or smell her… just _something that would assure him that she was still there._

            An idea formed somewhere in his mind and he bolted out of the room and headed towards his own. Maybe he could sneak into her room through the balcony…

            As the prince stood frozen to the spot, comforted by the sound of Naomi's voice, he was distracted by Haku almost running into him as the boy sprinted into his own room. He suddenly couldn't recall what he was doing… oh wait, that's right… he was going to try and put Naomi out of his mind by getting away from her… he didn't want to destroy any trust that she had for him… but he was finding it very hard to walk in any direction other than towards her. Or maybe towards her room… perhaps if he could smell her fragrance on her sheets then he'd feel better.

            Crud. They'd already thought to lock the balcony door before Haku could get there. But he could still sit outside the door and listen to Sen… and maybe catch a glimpse of her once in a while without her knowing that he was there. This could work… it wasn't nearly as satisfying as what she allowed him to do earlier, but it was still better than nothing.

            Perfect; this is exactly what he had hoped for. The prince was in Naomi's room, lying face-down on her bed. It smelled just like her… and he was perfectly content with the fact that he got even this much. 

            "I feel really bad for them, in a way," Naomi confessed to Sen.

            "I know what you mean… it's not their fault that they feel like that today…," Sen agreed. But maybe we can go see them again before we go to bed… most of the curses have been getting less intense when it gets later in the night."

            "Well that's definitely a good thing. Did you see Haku's face when he thought that Boh would be a problem? He looked really angry…"

            "So did the prince… he looked very determined not to trouble you or let Boh bother you, though. You're lucky that he's changed so much; I got the impression that he would beat himself if he even looked at you the wrong way."

            Naomi was quiet for a moment before saying, "I don't think that I'd be angry if he did anything… it's not like he'd be doing it on his own accord."

            "Yeah, I figured you'd feel that way. He's not the only one who's been singing a different tune than when we all arrived here." Sen replied, trying to sound casual, though it was more than apparent that she was very excited to hear Naomi practically admit that she liked the prince's company.

            Naomi didn't even blush this time. She just grinned at her friend, who was happily bouncing herself on her bed, and she laughed at how little it took to get more than one point across.

            It was about nine o'clock in the evening when Sen (already in her pajamas) went into Haku's room to look for him, but for some reason, he wasn't there. Little known to her was that he was actually out on the balcony, having fallen asleep there, and she had come into his room from the hallway. 

            "Haku?" she called from the doorway. She didn't hear an answer, so she walked over to the balcony door. "Haku?"

            Once again, there was no answer, so she turned back to leave and look somewhere else. Haku had fallen asleep on one side of a rather large potted plant, so Sen didn't see him in front of her own bedroom door. He woke up just in time to see her right leg disappear back into his room, and he became extremely cheerful at the sight of her without a glass door separating them. Naturally, he got up to catch her before she left.

            "Chihiro!"

            She was just about to pass Haku's bed on her way to leave when he suddenly ran into her with such force she would have fallen, if he had not wrapped his arms around her in a very tight hug.

            "Haku," she said as she gasped for breath, "did you miss me?"

            "Of course I did! Did you think that I wouldn't be happy to finally be with you after sitting out on the balcony by myself all day?" As he said this he loosened his grip on her and backed up just enough to look at her without letting her go.

            "You were out there all day? What were you doing?"  
            "Listening to you and occasionally getting to see you… I missed you." He buried his face in her hair and continued, "I missed seeing you and hearing your voice… without a door in the way, that is… and I missed the way you smell, and the way you taste and feel... I never want to have to live another day without you again. It was torture." Then Haku went back to squeezing her to death after having a good look at her.

            "Don't worry, I won't have to lock myself away from you anymore," she said while she ran her hands up and down his back for comfort. Haku had his face against the crook of her neck, drinking in everything about her that he possibly could, and Sen could feel him smile against her skin.

            He still wasn't back to normal… but at least he was better than he had been that morning. Sen was just glad that he was happy now, and sighed with relief that he wasn't angry with her for avoiding him. As she sighed she began to feel that she was a little drowsy, and she reflexively leaned on Haku to support her groggy self and rested her head on his shoulder.

            "Tired?"

            "A little. More comfortable than sleepy, though." As she said this, Haku lifted his head, stepped to her side and he picked her up bridal-style, then carried her towards the balcony.

            "Where are we going?" Sen asked.

            "To your room, so you can sleep," Haku said and looked down at her affectionately. They rounded the potted plant that Haku had slept near and entered her room. Haku walked across and gently set Sen down on her bed, then kneeled down on the floor with his arms on the mattress and his head rested in them.

            "Are you going to stay there until I fall asleep?" Sen asked, thinking that it must not be very comfortable, but also being a bit selfish and adding a tone of hopefulness to her voice.

            "No, I plan on staying here all night. I missed you far too much to leave you after such a short time of having you back."

            "Well… you can't just stay like that all night… come up here and sleep."

            Haku looked at her the way Boh looked at the prince when he told him that the candy shop was free. He didn't expect her to want him up there… "You aren't afraid of what I might do?"

            "Well it's the only solution that I can think of that wouldn't make me feel mean… if I let you stay there, you'd have a stiff neck in the morning. If I gave you a blanket and pillow and let you sleep on the floor, I'd feel cruel that you'd be sleeping there while I'm on the bed. And if I told you to go back to your own room, I'd feel terrible because I know that you really don't want to be separated from me."

            He sighed to let out some of the joy that had suddenly welled up inside him, afraid that he might erupt. "Did I mention earlier that I also missed everything you do for me?"

            She smiled at him as he stood up, walked around her bed and took a spot next to her. "No, but you did tell me how you missed my taste… but I'm starting to think that wasn't true, since you still haven't done anything about it," she joked.

            As soon as she finished, she found that it in fact was true, since his tongue was now savagely conquering every space in her mouth. 

            After bringing Dayu to Boh's room, since Sen had left him with her while she searched for Haku, Naomi decided to call it a day and go to bed. When she walked into her room to find the prince on her bed, she wasn't at all surprised, but she was a bit curious as to why he was laying face-down instead of sitting on it like he usually did when he waited for her.

            She stood in the doorway for a moment and waited for him to notice that she was there, but he either ignored her of didn't hear the door open. She approached him and took care to make her footsteps louder than was natural to see if he reacted, but he just lied there. 

            She had no idea why on earth he had stayed on her bed long enough to fall asleep, but she knew that he was in her way.

            "Wake up," she said and poked his arm.

            He got up from his stomach and into a position where he was sitting on his feet rather abruptly, and took a second to look around to see where he was.

            "How come you fell asleep in here?" Naomi asked.

            He ignored her question and hastily got off the bed to stand. "Sorry… I…" He was looking everywhere but her and looked very anxious.

            "Sorry for what? I don't care that you took a nap on my bed, I'm just a little confused about it… what's wrong?" He was now biting his bottom lip, and he still wouldn't look at her. Did she make him nervous?

            "Well… I came in here because I had to stay away from you… so I found the next best thing."

            "Oh," she said simply and couldn't help but smile. "Well it's not like you broke anything, so why are you so nervous?"

            "Just embarrassed… that's all…"

            "Well you shouldn't be; all you did was spend a day in here and fall asleep. And you already come in here all the time as it is," she replied. There was also the fact that when he referred to her room as the next best thing to her, she took it as a compliment, not a sign that he was a fool…

            "But all those times I just had something to tell you or ask you…"

            Naomi thought for a moment before saying, "Okay, so just pretend that you were waiting here the whole time for me. So what did you want?"

            'She's trying to make me feel less uncomfortable by pretending that this is normal… that's so nice of her… she's always nice… and yesterday she didn't mind when I accidentally touched something I shouldn't have… she was so forgiving… she's completely perfect… and so beautiful…'

            The fact that Prince Miruto was now looking her up and down didn't alarm her or make her uncomfortable. She understood that he was still not feeling like himself and in all honesty had expected him to do more than just look at her. But she didn't know what to do about it, so she just waited for his answer…

            'So… what do I want? Well I want Naomi, that's what… even when I'm in my right mind… but I don't know what she's thinking… I'll just make something up…' "I wanted to know… how your day was." 'Pathetic… but at least she would take that without question… because she's so understanding… and perfect…'

            "Oh, it was good," she said with a smile. "It would have been a lot better if it wasn't just me and Sen though. We ran out of things to do, but then we…" Naomi continued to tell him about what she did all day, but he'd stopped listening when she said that it could have been better with somebody besides only Sen.

            'What does she mean by that? Did she miss me? Oh… she's still talking… she's acting like this is completely normal… she's so considerate… and she's only doing it so that I'll relax… she actually cares how I feel… wait, she cares?'

            "And so I just came here from bringing Dayu to Boh's room," she finished. She knew that he didn't hear most of what she said (since he was staring at the ground in front of him), but at least she had done something right when she started this charade. "So how was your day?" she asked, trying to pull him out of whatever daze he seemed to be in. Naomi was proud of herself since she had made him feel a bit better, but it was a little weird when he had just stood there for the whole time that she was talking, and then even for a longer time when she took the opportunity to look at his reaction.

            His blank gaze flicked onto her from where it had been set on the floor, and the glazed look was now an expression of relief. "Well considering everything that I've done today… It was fabulous," he said.

            'Huh? He spent the entire day moping on my bed because he wasn't allowed to be in the same room as me… but he didn't sound sarcastic or like he was just saying that to avoid the truth…' "What was the best part to make it so great, then?"

            He looked up at her and grinned. "Well I recently woke up from a nap to see a certain person that I spent the whole day thinking about— and that's always a good way to wake up —then she did me a very nice favor and started a conversation with me to avoid a touchy subject. Now when I look at that next to everything else that I did today, it out-weighs the hours I spent moping in here, by far. So it's safe to say that on the whole, I've had a very good day." When he finished speaking, he seemed like his normal self… like the spell had worn off of him earlier than it should have. 

            Naomi smiled and nodded appreciatively at the fact that he was back to normal so soon— or was at least doing a good job of hiding any impure thoughts he was having. "Well then she must be happy, and not to mention flattered, that you think so highly of her that she can do something so simple to turn your day around so effectively," she said and emphasized the word 'so' when she realized how often she was using it in that long-winded sentence. 

            "Well good; she should be," he confirmed. "She should also be happy that she's so kind, considerate, beautiful, forgiving, wonderful, faultless, stunning…" and his eyes wandered as he searched for more complimentary adjectives to tick off on his fingers.

            Okay… so he wasn't back to normal… better not point it out though; he was at least in a better mood.

            "Not to mention caring, selfless, thoughtful, understanding, gorgeous, gentle, helpful, and perfect," he finished with a look of pride at the fact that he had listed off all of Naomi's good qualities in one breath.

            "…You done?" Naomi asked as she barely managed to hold back a giggle. It was funny: She wasn't even sure if he knew what he was saying anymore. Not that she minded the compliments.

            He sighed with slight disappointment from having run out of words. "Yeah, but I wish there was a better word than perfect…"

            Confused and taken aback came to mind, but that was because he didn't think that perfect was the right word for her even after he had just said it… "You don't think she's perfect?" she asked and remembered to refer to herself in the third person like they had both been doing for the whole chat. 

            "Nope. Perfect isn't good enough to describe you," he said simply.

            He got her completely off-guard… she hadn't expected that he could say anything to top off the long list of compliments he had indirectly given her. And she knew that he meant it, too, from the way he was now talking to her instead of about her.

            Naomi started to blush slightly and just gave a weak laugh. She would have said something but she just didn't know how to respond to it.

            He snorted and saluted her, saying, "I'll see you tomorrow… hopefully nothing can be as bad as what happened today, right?"

            Naomi laughed in agreement and opened the door for him, since she was the only thing between him and it. When he was on the other side of it and she was about to close the door, she stuck her tongue out, as was the tradition, and then he was out of sight. 

            After changing into her pajamas, she flopped onto her bed and looked at the clock on her night table.     

            'Nine forty-five… he spent at least half an hour in here talking to me, and held back the whole time…' She rolled onto her back and ran a hand through her hair. 'Impressive… especially for him.' She frowned as she grew uncomfortable on her back very soon, and hoped that she wouldn't have trouble sleeping tonight, after so many nights of going through that already. She rolled onto her stomach, which was usually the way she fell asleep anyway, and could already feel herself drifting off. 'My pillow smells nice… different, but nice… I wonder why," was her last complete thought before she fell into dream land.

~Saturday~

            When Haku woke up, he was in Sen's bed, of course, and she was clinging tightly to him with her arms around his middle. He sat up and let his feet dangle over the edge of the bed, and noticed that he was wearing particularly feminine looking pants… there were purple flowers all over it and they were all silky… he scratched at his head in bewilderment, and noticed that his hair was softer than usual. Now he was just confused… Haku stood up and examined himself starting at his feet, then up his legs and to his hips, then his torso and…

            Since when did he have those?

            Crap. This wasn't good. He slowly turned around, dreading what he knew he would see lying on Sen's bed… and his eyes fell on his own body where Sen's should have been. 

            "Chihiro… wake up."

            She grunted in a very un-lady-like fashion. But of course she would, she wasn't a lady anymore. "What is it?"

            "Um…" he was about to answer her when Sen looked at him and saw her own body, and he got a shock when he saw how horrified his face could look. 

            "Please tell me that it only affected you," she said, but when she heard her now deeper voice she groaned and lied back down. "Naomi won't like this, if I know what happened to her."

            Sen was right; Naomi didn't like it at all. 

            When she had first woken up, she noticed the same smell on her pillow that she had sensed before falling asleep last night. When she realized that it was the prince's smell, since he had been napping on her bed, she snorted at how obvious it should have been. But had she gotten a cold? Her snort wasn't as high-pitched as usual. 

            She opened her eyes and was very confused when she saw a completely different room around her. But she recognized it from the tour of the castle she had gotten… it was the prince's room. 

            Naomi had begun to form the idea that he brought her there last night after she fell asleep and had very crooked intentions… but then her mind stopped functioning all together before she could complete the thought when she saw her reflection in a mirror hung on the wall.

            She stared at the prince's face looking back at her for a good minute or two before comprehending what must have happened to Prince Miruto in exchange. Then she decided that she might want to keep an eye on him… or herself… or whatever.

            When she reached her own room, she didn't hesitate to storm right in and wake up the prince, who she found was indeed being held captive in her body. She poked him hard in the ribs, but soon regretted it from fear of having to wake up to a nasty bruise tomorrow.

            "I didn't do it…," he mumbled, still half asleep. Naomi couldn't help but laugh at how stupid her own face looked when it was having a confusing dream.

            Her laugh woke the prince and he looked blankly up at his face that was still laughing at him. 

            "Let me guess…," he began, but stopped when he heard Naomi's voice come from his throat. It suddenly hit him that he was in her room, and when he looked at himself he was certainly not in his own body. 

            He suddenly pulled a very disgruntled face and sighed. "Of all things… if this had to happen, why couldn't I have switched with Haku, or some other male in the castle?"

            Naomi was a bit peeved when she first discovered that she would have to go through a day with the prince's body, but after seeing his reaction to it, she was very amused, and she was still laughing.

            "Hey, quit that! How can you be laughing at such a… de-masculization?"

            That made her laugh harder because first of all, de-masculization isn't a word. Secondly, he was taking the change worse than she was, even when he had a golden opportunity to relieve some of what he had held back yesterday right in front of him. "I thought you would have liked the change," she teased.

            Prince Miruto only grumbled. 

            "Well I'm going to Sen's room to eat. See you later," Naomi said as she started to calm down. But maybe it wasn't a good idea to let the prince/her body get out of her sight… not that she thought he would do anything, it was just weird to still be alive without your own body around. 

            After this ran through her mind, she stopped at the door and then turned to the prince. "On second thought, I'd rather not be separated from myself. Hurry up and come on."

            Before she had even begun to speak, he was already getting out of her bed. "Already am. You think I don't want to stick with myself, too?"

            Back in Sen's room, after everyone pointed out who was who, they all took seats at the table to wait for Boh and Dayu as well as their food.

            When they arrived, Boh was hiccupping, or so they thought. After a few minutes of him making strange noises they finally realized that Boh had switched bodies with Dayu, who was quite perturbed and worried that Boh would make his body gain a lot of weight. 

            They were already bent on keeping their eyes on each other for the whole day, but then another problem arose when the food came.

            "Aren't you going to eat anything, Hak— I mean, Sen?" Naomi asked her, nearly forgetting about the curse.

            "No."

            "Why not?" Haku asked.

            "Because as much as I love you, Haku, I'd rather not risk seeing anything by having to use the bathroom," she explained while everyone saw Haku's face blush for what must have been the first time. Haku was just that sort of person who never got into a situation where he'd be blushing, and it was enlightening to see different expressions on everyone's faces. And with Sen being in Haku's body, they saw just that. 

            Everyone else lowered their utensils and stopped eating the moment she finished speaking. They hadn't really thought about that… And even if they did plan to eat, they suddenly weren't hungry anymore. And as another result of Sen's comment, they all remained in their pajamas yet again.

            Sometime during the day they discovered that the pairing of people who switched bodies depended on who it was they each saw before they went to sleep. Sen and Haku saw each other last, as with Dayu and Boh. Naomi saw the prince last so there you go. And although Prince Miruto passed other people in the halls on his way to his own room, the fact that he was only thinking of Naomi worked well enough. 

            They went out to train for a bit, which was very fun under their circumstances. After a few minutes of doing what they usually do, Sen had an idea.

            She was doing a few things without using her shield for while, when she stopped in her tracks and grinned from ear to ear. 

            "Hey, quit hopping from foot to foot like that; you're making me look like a pansy," Haku told her when she started bouncing around with excitement. 

            She continued despite what Haku said, and asked him, "Do you think I'd be able to turn into a dragon?"

            He thought about it for a moment, then said, "I don't see why not. All you really have to do is will yourself to be one. At least that's all _I have to do… I wonder if I can still do it in your body…"_

            That proved to be very easy. As soon as Sen could picture Haku's dragon form in her mind, she changed. She looked at herself for split second before turning her gaze on Haku.

            "I'M A DRAGON!!!" he suddenly heard in his (or Sen's, I should say) head. He flinched at the volume of her delighted, telepathic exclamation and then simply nodded at her. 

            After her little outburst, Sen proceeded to run in happy little circles, fly and do random flips and twirls in the air, and for a while they even tolerated training with her like that (they tolerated it instead of liking it because she was too hyper and a little hard to work with).

            After she tired of staying in yet another body, Sen returned to the original form of her body for the day. But then another question came to her mind. "Haku, can you still change in my body?"

            He stood for a moment and looked like he was concentrating, then looked at her and said, "No." And nobody needed to know, but that was a lie… once he felt the tingle in his feet that always came before his transformations, he stopped before anyone could notice. He didn't want Sen to see her dragon form… at least not until it was actually hers, and not just Haku switching her form for her. He'd seen her dragon forms many times in his dreams, ever since Zeniiba told him what she would look like. She was beautiful… and he really did want to show her, but the only thing he wanted more than that was to wait until Sen could see it and not feel disappointed when she wouldn't be able to keep it… later, if he waited, she would have it for good… but speaking of Zeniiba, when was she going to help him arrange…

            "Haku, are you okay?" Sen asked him. "You looked a little dazed."

            "Yeah… I was just reminded of something, and that got me thinking of something else, then I got onto another subject, and you know how those things go…" At least he didn't have to lie to her that time… (But seriously, has that ever happened to you? You're thinking of one thing, then something on that subject brings up a memory of another thing, and it sets off a whole big chain reaction? I don't know about you, but that happens to me a lot.)

            Meanwhile, Naomi was having an easier time than usual with dodging things and couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with the fact that she was in Prince Miruto's body. Later, they all found that the reason was because the prince had practiced in martial arts since he was four, and although he trained a lot less these days, he still got in a few hours a week. He would like to get in even more time than that, but since his father had gained enough weight to turn him into a lazy type of king (his father being the one who trained him), it was getting more and more difficult. But even so, just like Sen could turn into a dragon because Haku's abilities had been left in his body, Naomi could do everything that the prince could do.

            Overall, the day went fairly well for what it was. The only things that got in the way were no eating, bathing or changing, and the fact that it was a lot harder now to communicate with Boh. Another side effect was that Haku and Prince Miruto's attitudes were quite the opposite of what they were yesterday. It seemed that no matter how self-centered anyone was, they couldn't bring themselves to exchange romantic or complimentary gestures with anyone they loved or had interests in, since they would be looking at themselves the whole time. And I don't even think that Narcissist* would want to make out with his own body. Maybe shower it with compliments, but you never know.

            But anyway, there were also advantages to this whole body mix-up. For one thing, they got to know each other a lot better in the sense that they learned new details about their personalities. For example, they never knew until that day that the prince did martial arts. Then there's the fact that they took on each other's habits, such as their posture, behavior and composure during different activities. That may not tell you a lot, but it made them all more aware of each other's lifestyles, which in turn made them feel like they'd been living with each other for a lot longer than just two weeks.

            When nighttime finally came, there wasn't much confusion over where to sleep for anyone, that is, except for Naomi and Prince Miruto. 

            "Uh… should we just go to sleep in our own rooms?" the prince asked her after they were the only ones left standing in the hall; Sen and Haku were in Sen's room for the night so that they both woke up in the same spot as where they fell asleep, and Boh and Dayu were in Boh's room, as always. Everyone else who would be in that particular hallway were in bed as well.

            "No, if we did that then I'd wake up in your room again," Naomi reasoned.

            "So what, I'll go to sleep in your room and you in mine?"

            "I'd rather not do that either, since it would mean leaving my body… and I still don't like the idea of being separated from it while my mind is anywhere other than in the heavens."

            "…Are you suggesting that we sleep in the same room?"

            "If that's what it takes," she said and walked towards her room.

            "There's a surprise…"

            "Oh please; you can't tell me that you'd really try to feel up your own body while I'm asleep," she said flatly.

            The prince grimaced at the thought… eew.

            "And I'm sleeping on the floor while you get the bed," she said as they entered her room and she stole a pillow from her bed.

            "Well that's generous of you."

            "Actually, I just don't want to be the one with a bad back in the morning," she said with a sly grin at the prince.

            "Hey! That's no fair. You take the bed then."

            "No."

            "Fine… two can play at that game," Prince Miruto said as he walked across the room and sat in a chair. He then slouched and twisted himself (or Naomi's self) as much as he could without falling off and when he finished, his position promised more than just a stiff neck.

            Naomi sighed in defeat and tried to compromise. "Okay… how about we both just sleep on the floor?"

            "Then we'd both be sore in the morning," he pointed out.

            "But it would at least be fair."

            "No thanks. Just take the bed and accept that I won."

            "Uh, no. Either you sleep in the bed or we both sleep on the floor."

            "You know, I could just say the same thing and then we'd have gotten nowhere." 

            "Or you could try to be reasonable and make a compromise if you can't have your own way."

            "Well the only compromise that I can think of and that would be good for me is if we both slept on the bed. But you wouldn't go for that, so I didn't say anything."

            Naomi sat there on the carpet for a minute and thought about it. "We could do that. Like I said, it's not like you would make a pass on yourself while I wouldn't be awake to notice."

            "But what about in the morning? I don't plan on doing anything, but you aren't still nervous?"

            "No, I'm not. I can wake up very early if I fee like it, so that won't be a problem. And besides, you didn't do anything yesterday, so I'm pretty sure that I can trust you by now."

            He watched her get up from the floor and onto the bed, when she stacked up some pillows down the middle of it. "Cool. But what's the barrier all about if you trust me the way you claim to?"

            "I may trust you, but that doesn't change the fact that I roll around in my sleep a lot," she explained as she ran out of pillows and claimed the right side of the bed.

            "Oh," the prince replied with a shrug. Then he plopped down in the other side of the bed and turned off the light.

_"He's a dirty little thief! There's nothing good about him."_

So there you have it. And the quote… I supposed you could sort of relate it to what Naomi first thought of the prince, but I just randomly picked it off the top of my head. It's two thirty in the morning now, and I think I'm looking at another night without any sleep… I'm not in the least bit tired. But hey, look at that! My split personality is back! *points to the text below*

*Yawn* That had to have been the most boring Sunday that I've read about. I mean, come on. None of the animals were even dangerous. How lame is that?

~Aw, stop it! If there were any animals that were too scary, Boh would retire from the story ^_^ and we don't want that to happen. But hey, Monday was pretty funny to picture, if you ask me.

What are you talking about? They were only itchy. That's all. Nothing else. *Yawn* Tuesday, on the other hand, was a knee-slapper. Wouldn't you hate it if the only thing you could eat was ketchup? And then they had to stay filthy because they couldn't bathe! Ha!

~ ^_^ That is pretty funny, actually. But I have to say that Wednesday was one of my favorites :D Can you imagine Sen being BALD?

Ugh. That must have been horrible. Maybe I can just shave miss sunshine's head over here if she gets too annoying…

~What was that?

Nothing. 

~ ^_^

Thursday wasn't all that funny, but it was enlightening. Naomi is getting to be more comfortable with the prince, even though she only showed it as a side effect from being in her pj's. But she still likes the prince when she doesn't show it. How cliché. *Yawn*

~Huh? Gloomy Gracie over here came up with some neutral feed-back on something? Amazing. ^_^

Well look who thinks she's clever Dan! I'm going to ignore your comment and think about everything I have that's better to do than sit here and chat with you. *Yawn*

~Have fun ^_^ And while you do that, I'll talk with the readers about how much all of our faces burned when we read about Friday :D Haku was cute at night when he brought Sen to bed because he knew she was tired ^_^ , but his conduct that morning was unacceptable!

You sound like my mother. And I thought that Friday was good, but it was a little boring since Prince Miruto had everything under control. It would have been funny to see him resemble his old self on that day. Because, I mean, when he wasn't sitting on his hands in a chair, he was napping. Dull. *Yawn*

~Yeah, well, he was trying to be a gentleman for Naomi :D How sweet of him ^_^ Oh and that reminds me of how much I liked Saturday! I can really relate to all of them being in tune with each other's habits. When somebody is coming down the stairs, I can tell who it is by the way they take each step :D Isn't that cool?

Not really. *Yawn* The only thing that I liked about Saturday was the fact that Sen could be a dragon for a while. But I wonder what her OWN dragon form looks like… and talk about foreshadowing, _"But speaking of Zeniiba, when is she going to help me arrange…" A complete give-away if I've ever seen one. And that's not the first time, either. Back in chapter nine, when Naomi and Rin were talking about Haku after Sen healed him from being attacked by Kosho, look at what they said:_

_"Boy, I tell ya: I'm starting to worry about their separation when you guys leave," Rin said to Naomi. "I mean, they look so happy together. They would probably lose the will to live if they could never see each other again."_

_"I know what you mean. Whenever I see Haku around the building, he looks like he is on top of the world. I can never talk to him though; it's like he's so eager to see Sen all day that he spends all his time running around to work off the excitement."_

_"Come to think of it, I've noticed that in the past two days that you have been here, he has been coming and going a lot more than he used to."_

_"You think he could be planning something?"_

_"It's likely, with him. He is very sneaky."_

I'm not going to say anything more, because if you can all put two and two together then you'll see the clues there.

~Okay, but what does the number four have to do with those quotes you just pulled out?

x_x

~Oh well ^_^ Seeing as how my counterpart is unconscious at the moment, I'll have to say g'bye for her ^_^ Bye!

*Narcissist: A Greek god who's completely obsessed with himself. Seriously. In the Disney movie Hercules (which I don't own, by the way… stupid disclaimer…), he even had a button to fasten his cape that said 'ME' on it. And he was making kissy faces to himself in a mirror. And don't mind if I spelled his name wrong, because I really have no clue how to spell it and the spell check doesn't really help.


	18. Liberation Day: Part 1

Wo0t! Chapter 18 (or according to the menu thing… 19) is *finally* here! I'm really sorry for keeping you all waiting so long, really I am! *cries* At first I was just lazy for a few days, but then I went on… like... two week-long vacations and I couldn't do any writing. When I got back from them though, my doggie got attacked! So I spent a day or two just watching after her around the house while everyone else ignored the poor little girl :( So then I started writing whenever I could, but when you throw in the fact that my sister has recently started taking up time on the computer also, it gets difficult to actually get much done. So I really am sorry everyone. The updates will be coming a lot faster from now on, hopefully. 

Now just so that everyone is up to speed, they have all been at the castle for two weeks now and there's only one week left before the train should be fixed and they all leave. So now I'm done talking, and you're free to read chapter 18!

Oh and by the way… if you're wondering why Friday in the last chapter was what it was, then I can tell you that I got that idea from a friend, and it was a heck of a lot better than what I had in mind, so I used it.

            When Naomi woke up from sleep, it took her a few minutes to recall everything that had happened the week before. It was Sunday again, and exactly a week ago she had awoken to a chimpanzee running a fashion show with her clothes. But this week, she was happy to note that what she woke up to was something she found that she didn't really mind as much. 

            She was a bit stunned at how much she tossed and turned that night, though. When she turned her attention to herself, she discovered that she somehow managed to get in a position so that her body was across the bed rather than aligned with it. In other words: she'd rotated by ninety degrees. As a result, her head was crammed into the prince's back (which was facing her), her own back was bent over the barrier of pillows, and her legs were hanging over the edge of the bed beginning a small way passed her knees. 

            When she could finally focus on her situation, she noticed that it was surprisingly comfortable. The pillows did a good job to crack her back (god knows how long she'd been needing that…), she was stretched out all the way and thus didn't need to bother to stretch herself, and the arm that was poking out slightly from underneath Prince Miruto made a nice pillow. 

            Even though there was absolutely no need to, she stretched out of habit. When she straightened herself and made her body stiff like she always did, she began to slide off of the bed and onto the floor, starting with her feet. Before she could react, she had reached the ground, where she took the opportunity to yawn; just another habit to carry out after stretching. 

            "Finally! You're awake! You know, you told me that you rolled around a lot, but that was a little over the top."

            From her seat on the carpet, Naomi saw the prince lean over the edge of the bed to look at her. She grinned sheepishly at having been so active during her sleep and said, "Yeah, well I don't usually move around that much. It probably had something to do with the fact that I got my own body back during the night."

            "Sure, blame the curse," he said just to poke fun. "Well in any case, you sure were violent… I felt like I was sleeping next to a dreadfully aggressive masseuse." He took a second to fling his legs over the bed so his toes touched the ground next to Naomi, and he straightened his back and began to rub it as best he could. Then he put on a completely phony expression of being in pain and said, "I think I may need to start seeing a chiropractor regularly after the thrashing you gave me."

            Naomi stood up and scowled at him in return, but couldn't manage to stifle a laugh. "Okay, make fun if you want… I'm just glad that everything is back to normal and we don't have to watch out for any more curses."

            "Yeah, I have to go talk to my parents about that. Not that there should be anything more to worry about, but yesterday when I saw my dad, he said that he'd create a new holiday if he didn't first." The prince chuckled at that and added, "As if it didn't do him any good to be in a more active body."

            "Was he serious about the holiday?"

            "I don't know; that's why I'm going to talk to them."

            "Well beat it then. I want to get dressed now."

            "No respect…" he said in mock disappointment. She stuck her tongue out in return and was saluted before he left.

            Across the hall, Sen was busying herself by combing her hair while she waited for everyone to gather in her room for breakfast. 

            Haku had offered to go and wake Boh after he got dressed and Sen had already dressed herself and ordered some food from a passing servant in the hall. 

            Naomi was the first to find her way to Sen's room for their meal. Sen noticed that she was looking particularly happy that morning and decided to ask about it for the sake of conversation. "Looks like you woke up on the right side of the bed. How is it possible for you to be so… jolly?"

            "Well first of all, it was the left side," she corrected.

            "Huh?"

            "I woke up on the left side of the bed." Well she did… she'd gone to sleep on the right side, but when she got her own body back she was moved to the left side, where the prince had fallen asleep. But she wasn't going to explain that. Sen didn't need to know… or she didn't want her to know just yet. Take your pick. 

            "Oh."

            "And I'm happy because the curse is finally a thing of the past, and now we can live normally, even considering that we're in the Spirit World."

            For some reason, she didn't think that Naomi was telling her everything. "Is that all?"

            "Yeah," she answered a little too quickly, causing Sen to get more suspicious that she was holding out her. "Aren't you happy about it, too?"

            No doubt that she was. She and Haku were so happy, in fact, that they spent a good chunk of time making out before actually getting up… "Sure I am," she said cheerfully. 

            Not too long after that, Boh came in with Dayu on his shoulder, fallowed by Haku. When Haku saw Naomi, he looked at her with a somewhat confused expression. "Naomi, what was the prince doing in your room? He's usually only there before you go to sleep, not after you wake up…" It wasn't like Haku to prod, but everyone (including the few chefs that usually brought their food) knew that Naomi and Prince Miruto had a relationship, whether they both wanted to admit it or not. 

            Naomi sighed in defeat and explained about what she had worked out with the prince last night. She mentally gave herself a pat on the back too, because she managed not to blush the whole time and so Haku and Sen didn't jump to the conclusion that something happened.

            "And you woke up… in what kind of a position? How on earth can that be comfortable?" Sen asked.

            Naomi shrugged as their food was brought in, and they all dug in greedily without bothering to wait for the prince, who wouldn't be joining them that morning.

            "And that was when the gnomes came in and stole all of the balloons."

            "Um… Boh, I'm confused… didn't you say before that the gnomes were in the cave, holding all of the farm animals hostage?"

            "Yeah, but then they decided to throw a party, so they went out to steal the balloons."

            "But then who was guarding the animals in the cave?"

            "I'm getting to that! The gnomes decided to have a party so they needed the balloons. Before they went and stole them, they made a deal with the talking sheep that if it guarded the other animals, then the gnomes wouldn't shear or slaughter it."

            "Oh… and why did they kidnap the animals again?"

            "So that they could send a ransom note to the farmer, asking for some new dishwashers in exchange for the animals' safe return."

            "Okay I get it now."

            "So anyway, they had a party with all the animals while they waited for their new dishwashers, but then they all got drunk on sake. One of the bigger gnomes was playing chicken with some cattle and they accidentally knocked down one of the cave walls and opened up a worm hole."

            "Ooh, this is getting interesting. Where did the worm hole lead?"

            "It brought them all to some sort of room for punishment… there was a monk there and he was meditating on a rock. He said that the gnomes were naughty for leaving the sake in reach of children and that to get back home, the gnomes would have to find the sake and then lock it up."

            "That has to be the most bizarre thing I've heard of, even after the past week… But did they get to find it?"

            "After they looked around for a while they found it. Then a hole in the side of a cliff appeared and there was a mine cart for them to go back home. But the track was on the top of the hole, and so the cart was up-side down. Then it ended before they could figure out what to do."

            "Oh… it was over, just like that?"

            "Actually, no… after they saw the cart, the monk said, 'Everything will be okay, as long as it all makes sense,' and _then_ it ended."

            "Man, I wish I could have some dreams like that… the best one that I ever had included a pink whale and a blue whale that were both made of cardboard, and they were scowling at me for the whole thing…"

            A humorous snort could be heard a few feet below them. They looked down and saw Prince Miruto, who was laughing uncontrollably at what he had just over head from Haku and Boh. The two of them, plus Dayu, were looking down at him from various positions in the anti-gravity field of the product testing room, where they had decided to float around for while.

            "How long were you standing there?" Haku asked, starting to feel defensive over his whale dream. 

            "For the whole thing," he managed to get out. After he could talk without his laughter getting in the way, he added, "Well actually, I came in on the part about the balloons. What did you eat last night Boh, marshmallows with mustard? I only have dreams like that after I eat something really crazy."

            "It wasn't last night, it was when I was taking a nap before Naomi and Sen brought me to Zeniiba's house with them."

            "Oh," the prince said, and at the same time stepped into the anti-gravity field and launched himself up with his toes.

            "Were you looking for us?" Haku asked.

            "Yeah, and you weren't very easy to find, either," the prince replied as he pulled himself along the ceiling, gripping it between the tiles like monkey bars. "But now that I found you, I can tell you that my dad has declared this day as a local holiday to celebrate the end of the curse and take a day off. There will be people shouting it up and down the halls later, but I thought I might tell you all before hand."

            "Will there be a cook-out?" Boh asked at once. 

            The prince chuckled and said, "Probably, if the chefs aren't too fed up with cooking for everyone as it is. They might be sick of making so much food for people to stuff themselves after not eating yesterday… But anyway, there's gonna be partying, fireworks, and all that good stuff." It was only an hour before noon, so there would be plenty of time for all that. 

            "Sounds like fun," Haku said in his usual calm manner, though he was looking forward to it.

            "Yup. By the way, where are Naomi and Sen? It's not very usual for you all to be separated," he noticed.

            "They went to the third level to get all pampered in honor of being females again. You know: get a massage, get their nails and hair done, and maybe go for a facial. At least that's what they told me," Haku explained, thinking that Sen didn't need a facial at all, and never has or ever would.

            "How long have they been there?" the prince asked as he thought the same as Haku, only about Naomi.

            "I'd say… maybe an hour and a half. They went right after they finished eating breakfast."

            "Oh good, then they should be done soon, if the length of my mother's appointments is anything to go by. Well I need to go help organize some things for the all celebrating, so I'll see you later."

            "Bye," Haku said as Boh and Dayu waved at his retreating form. A little while later, Haku decided that they should wait in Sen's room to tell the girls about everything.

            "Haku!" Sen called when she saw him, Boh and Dayu approach the door to her room. She and Naomi sped up a little to catch up to them.

            "There you are, Chihiro. We were just going to wait in your room for you and Naomi. Prince Miruto found us and said that today has been stated as a new holiday by the king."

            "Really?" Sen and Naomi asked in unison. 

            "Yup, and he said that there'd be all kinds of things going on around here. Then he left to help prepare for it all."

            "Cool, I hope it turns out to be as good as last Thursday," Naomi said. "That was fun."

            _"Today has been declared a local holiday, and everyone is welcome to join the celebration outside! Festivities will officially begin in thirty minutes and go on until _midnight___! Again, everyone is welcome to join!"_

            The five guests standing outside of Sen's room watched as a servant with a megaphone walked down the hall and delivered the message over and over again. After that, they decided to take the thirty minutes that they had to get ready to go outside. 

            Naomi and Sen both went into Naomi's room to consult each other on what to wear, since her closet had the largest selection and fit the both of them. Haku was stuck with helping Boh get ready, as he always was, and Dayu just hung around Sen's room and waited. 

            When they finally were heading out to party, Naomi had settled on a yellow rugby t-shirt with white shorts, and Sen was wearing a more or less casual light blue skirt to go with a white tank top that had a blue, sheer, button-down blouse to go over it. Haku was wearing something that looked like his normal clothes, but they were a light green color, Boh hadn't budged to change into anything different, and Dayu was wearing his black hat that he had received the first night they were all there.

            "I wonder what they'll call it," Sen thought aloud as they waited for the elevator to take them to the first level so they could find their way outside. "The holiday, I mean."

            There was a short pause as everyone in the elevator pondered over different names it might have, which was only broken when the door rang out a 'ding!' and it opened to release them all.

            The first floor had been decorated for the sake of getting people in a partying mood before they got outside, and had thus been decorated rather scantily since it would only be of some use for a short while. There were a few streamers here and there and some confetti tossed around, but other than that it looked normal. 

            The halls of the first floor were crowded with people making their way out to the party, and the five guests fallowed the crowd out the front doors of the castle and around to the biggest part of the outer area, where the training field was not far off. Once they got there they saw that the king, queen and prince were stationed at the top of a short hill to give them height over the rest of the people there. There were picnic tables in various places over the grass and under the shade, the chefs were already pairing every grill they possessed with people to make good use of them with the food, and a crowd of professionals were gathered in the training field to get the fireworks organized.

            Once she caught sight of them, the queen hastily got up and rushed towards her and the king's five honored guests with a smile plastered on her face. 

            When she reached them, she didn't hesitate to take the hands of Naomi and Sen, who were the closest to her, and drag them back to where she had been sitting, telling them that mingling with the crowd was lower than they deserved, and should accompany her and her son and husband on such a day. Or until everyone broke up to have their own fun, at least. But she also had ulterior motives to get Naomi to be around the prince as much as possible from that day on, since she had more than picked up on the time the two spent together already. Naomi had been the first single female to mosey on into the castle without being chased away by Prince Miruto's… tendencies… and although Naomi was only sixteen, the queen had convinced herself that she would make a good daughter in law one day. They all took seats on either side of the royal family and their positions were the same as they were during the feast in their honor a couple of weeks back.

            After waiting around for a bit while the remainder of the castle inhabitants found their way outside, the king rose from his seat to give a speech. 

            He mainly dwelled on making jokes about what happened during the curse and the effect that it had on people before breaking into the point, and saying that the new holiday would be called Liberation Day, seeing as how they had all finally been freed from the results of the curse. Then, after reverting back to a few more jokes, he wished everyone a happy Liberation Day and invited them all to enjoy themselves however they pleased in the spirit of the occasion. 

            Once the speech was over, all five of them plus Prince Miruto stayed and chatted with the king and queen for a while (but mostly only the queen) about absolutely nothing in particular. The queen was the one who most of the time started the dialogue between them all, and her only reason for not ending the conversation was to see Naomi and Prince Miruto react to each other around her. 

            After a slightly longer pause than the rest that showed that the queen was out of topics, Boh remembered when he was talking to Haku about his dream and how interesting that seemed to be, so he started discussion it. Thankfully, it started the rest of them on getting into the conversation, and from then on it was no longer uncomfortable and pointless small talk. 

            They must have stayed on the dream subject for at least an hour, since there were six of them (Dayu can't talk) that were all eager to tell everyone else about the dreams they had had in the past. But just like all good things, it came to an end, when a few advisors sought out the queen to nag her about the fireworks.

            Once they were free to do whatever they wanted, since they didn't have to honor the queen's out-of-the-blue desire to talk to them, they found that they wanted to continue to discuss their dreams, and so they did just that for as much more time as they wanted.

            It was nearly one in the afternoon when the chefs had finally got it together and were dishing out lunch. After they all got their food, they ignored the crowded picnic tables and instead sat under the tree on the edge of the training field to eat while they laughed at the people fumbling over the fireworks.

            "So what else is there to do out here?" Naomi asked the prince, who, as always, was with the five guests. They had finished eating and were now throwing out their trash.

            "Well I don't really know… There are probably some people who have gone off and thrown their own smaller parties… maybe we could find something to do at one of those."

            With that said, they spent some time walking around and observing what other people were doing. More than half of the entire population of the castle had cleared out of the field where the whole thing had originally started, because they had all moved a bit farther from the castle and over to a lake that the five of them had not seen… probably because it was not really considered to be on the main territory of the castle. 

            But like I said, more than half of the people of the castle were at the lake, so not surprisingly, there weren't any spots on the shore that were empty to claim— unless they wanted to walk half way around it.

            They dropped that idea and moved on to see what other people were doing. Not much was going on outside, and the people who weren't at the lake were also not where everything had began, so they went inside the castle to see if there was something more interesting in there.

            Upon entering the front door, they couldn't help but let their attention be drawn to what looked like fire on the carpet of a hallway. A closer look revealed that it was only a spell though, and wasn't actually hot or burning anything. They decided to go in the direction that the arrow indicated, since there must be something interesting that way if somebody took the time to so that and all.

            More arrows came after that one and pointed them down a long staircase. Before they even got there, the prince voiced his suspicion that something must be going on in the dungeons. It was confirmed when they neared the bottom of the stairs and could hear music blaring from what was evidently the door of the dungeon, since it was labeled by that weird fire and all. 

            The first thing that Sen and Naomi noticed was the music. It wasn't at all like what they would normally listen to in their world, but it sounded instead like some strange mix of techno, pop, rap, and traditional Japanese music. On the whole, it was probably the strangest and at the same time, best thing they had ever heard. 

            Next to catch their attention was the flood of colors that assaulted their eyes. The room was dimly lit, but strobe lights were everywhere and what had to be the spirit world version of disco balls were hung from the ceiling, reflecting more of the color. 

            Once their eyes adjusted to the change in the light, they saw what had attracted so many people besides the arrows. A group of people had cleared out the largest part of the dungeon and conjured a skating rink right smack in the middle of it. The individual cells were filled with skate rental booths, snack stands, games, and there were even a random few that had light-up disco floors and dance cages or an anti-gravity thing like the product testing room on the seventh floor. The largest cell was filled with the people responsible for the music. A thought struck them that if the cells were vacated then the prisoners would be running about, but then it dawned on them that they probably didn't get many captives since the castle was basically out in the middle of nowhere.

            They stood there for a while staring blankly at everything before them, until the guys all noticed Sen and Naomi were unconsciously dancing as they observed it all. Then the girls noticed it too, and they stopped, but only to turn to Haku and the prince.

            "Can we rent some skates?" Naomi asked the prince before Sen even had a chance to open her mouth. Then she put on her most pathetic and pleading face in hopes of encouraging a yes.

            "Sure. There's no reason we wouldn't be able to," he replied after laughing slightly at her expression.

            "Yay!" the girls cheered even as they turned to charge towards the skate rental cell. The rest of them followed and ogled at the dungeon's makeover on the way there.       In the spirit of the holiday, whoever had set everything up had made it all free, and so before they even caught up with Naomi and Sen, they had gotten their skates along with pairs for the rest of them and had met them half-way there.

            "Well this is all just fine and dandy, but I've never actually used a pair of skates before…" the prince confessed.

            Naomi and Sen just openly stared at him. 

            "Um… how do you put these things on?" Boh asked, obviously not having ever skated either.

            "I must also admit that I've also never done this before," Haku admitted.

            Well, they were just gonna have to do something about that.

I decided to split this into two parts, since I'm not quite sure what to do after this little skate fest. So I thought you'd rather be able to finally see what's here right now then wait for who knows how much longer for the rest of it. So maybe by the weekend you'll have the rest…? I guess it depends on how school goes this week. Wednesday is my first day this year. So bye for now ^_^


	19. Liberation Day: Part 2

I'm sorry for all who liked this story, but I have to say… I just can't get up the enthusiasm to write it anymore. If anyone wants to take up writing it from here, then be my guest— all I ask is that you tell me so I can read it, and that you don't just take the whole story and claim it as yours. I'll know if you do, believe me, so I wouldn't try it.

But I really am sorry about this… it's mostly because I don't know what I want to do from here, and because I don't really ever feel like trying to think of anything. So I hope you enjoy the last (incomplete) chapter of this… and again, I really am sorry for those of you who enjoyed reading this… maybe in a while (as in a year or more) I'll feel like adding a chapter or something, but don't get your hopes us.

                Three different grunts of discomfort similar to 'ugh' sounded off from the pile of tangled limbs on the floor. Just a few seconds previously, the prince had been concentrating on keeping his balance and was doing a good job at it, but then he was distracted by Dayu squealing something on Sen's shoulder and then…

                Then, he and the other two novices had been brought down in the consequences.

                But luckily, they had been practicing in an empty cell, so the fallen skaters weren't in anyone's way. However, even though they just took a rather spiteful fall, the three of them had only just started to learn how to skate, and they were catching on very quickly. 

                "You know, you're not very graceful for someone of such a high class," Naomi teased to the prince. 

                "And you are exceptionally graceful for whatever class that ladies from old women's prophecies fall under. We just live in a mixed up world," he replied, earning a laugh from her and the others, but especially Sen. It really was true what he said… it could be *very* mixed up at times.

                Things after that went smoothly, seeing as after that one fall, they didn't have any more trouble.

                After another hour or two (actually, more like four), a voice boomed throughout the dungeons and announced, "Okay folks, now it's time for a dance contest! Anyone who isn't interested, please clear out of the rink for those who are." The voice for a minute or two while people made up their minds over if they would participate or not. As for Sen and Naomi, they definitely were going to, but the boys decided to just watch. 

                When everyone was where they were supposed to be, the voice was heard again. "Alrighty then, here are the rules: when the music starts to play, you all just need to start dancing. Some judges will be goin' around an' if they tap your shoulder, you're out! If that happens, please step off of the rink for the rest of the contest to continue. The judges will continue to eliminate people, and the last one on the rink will be the winner. So now that you know the rules, get ready to do some dancin'!"

                A few seconds went by when all that was heard was the buzz of people talking, but then the music started. Sen and Naomi had no trouble at all with moving to the music, and found themselves having even more fun than they would normally have dancing since they were wearing skates. 

                Five minutes passed, and half of the people who were originally out there had been eliminated. Haku, Prince Miruto, Boh and Dayu were all leaning over the edge of the rink and cheering on Sen and Naomi. 

                A few years back, Naomi and Sen had taken dance lessons together, and the next song that played had the same beat and a similar tune to the song that they had learned a routine for. They glanced smugly at each other; they had this contest won. They both started to dance out their old routine, but made sure to stay on opposite sides of the skating rink so that it was less obvious that they were doing the exact same thing. 

                After a while, they were two of the last four people left. They decided to start doing their own dance moves again when a new song started, and it wasn't long after that that another person was eliminated, leaving only them and one other girl. 

                By now, the people watching had split into very distinguishable groups and were all cheering for a different person. The judges were all watching the three remaining contestants with severe scrutiny, trying to pick one to eliminate. After maybe ten minutes of not one more person being eliminated, the announcer, who had took a spot in an empty part of the rink threw his arms up into the air and dubbed it hopeless. 

                "Well folks, it looks like the judges can't make up their mind who is better or worse with these three, so they all win!" He then got all of their names, and then finished with, "Let's hear it for Naomi, Sen and Kitty!" Everyone applauded. "The prize was originally going to be one of those dance cages, but since we can only afford to give one away, we'll have to think of something different…" The announcer switched off his megaphone and turned to the three winners. "Any thoughts on what you might want?"

                Nobody said anything; they just had fun dancing. They weren't even thinking of winning a prize. 

                "Well I guess I could let you have my private pool for the day… sound good? It's not far from the training field," he offered.

                "Really?" Naomi and Sen asked in unison.

                "Sure. You won it, after all. You deserve a prize."

                "You two girls can have it to yourself," the girl called Kitty said to them with a smile. "Sadly, I have some things to do today, so I don't think I'll have time to use the pool." Then she turned to the announcer guy and said, "Thank you for the offer though, and congratulations, you two!" Then she left.

                "So do you two want me to show you where it is right now, or are you going to be in here for a while longer?" The guy asked as people started to flood the rink again. 

                Sen looked at Naomi, who shrugged to show that it didn't really matter to her. Just then, the boys found their way to the two as Sen answered, "I guess were all done here. We've been here for kind of a long time."

                "Okay, just go return your skates and then meet me at the entrance." And with that, he too left them.

                After telling the rest of them what was going on, they returned their skates and met the announcer to fallow him to his pool.

                Once they got to the pool and the announcer guy had told them all the stuff he didn't want them to do to his precious baby, they had to make a quick stop to actually buy some swimsuits. Once that was done, they all went back to the pool, and Boh went off with Dayu to a kiddy pool.

                Haku and the prince, being typical guys and not caring that the water was cold, jumped right into it. Sen went in, but she went on the steps and took an immensely long time to get used to the temperature of the water. Or at least it seemed like a long time to Haku, who had been lurking in one of the darker corners of the pool, just waiting for Sen to get in so he could splash her— which he did, and that started a splashing fight with the two of them.

                Naomi, on the other hand, had stuck out a single toe and as soon as it made contact with the surface of the water, quickly retracted it as her entire body shivered and she stepped away from the pool, declaring that the water was much too cold.

                Prince Miruto, slightly crestfallen that Naomi didn't want to come in at the moment, waited until Haku and Sen were finished splashing each other before he was about to suggest that they play some sort of game, but Sen beat him to it.

                "Hey, you two want to play Marco Polo?" she asked.

                Obviously, there was never an explorer named Marco Polo in the Spirit World to have named a game after him, so Sen had to explain the rules, which she did. They decided that it sounded like fun, and agreed to play. Sen was it, since it was the first time that Haku and the Prince were playing.

                "Marco!"

                "Polo! (Polo!)"

                "Marco!"

                "Polo! (Polo!)"

                "Marco!"

                "Polo! (Polo!)"

                "You know, that game is very irritating when you're not one of the people playing it," Naomi said, getting up from her chair and strolling over to the edge of the pool. She decided that since she was being an absolute wimp before (and boy did she know it), she could at least stick her legs in up to her knees or something. 

                The three of them pondered that thought while nodding. Then they all noticed that Sen had opened her eyes when Naomi came over, so that round was finished. But then they didn't really feel like playing anymore.

                Meanwhile, since the sun was setting at that point in time, Naomi decided to just suck it up and jump into the water, so that she'd be in there for at least a few minutes while there was still a little bit of warmth from the sun. 

                Then, since there were enough people for it when Naomi joined them, Prince Miruto decided to try suggesting the game again.

                "Have any of you ever jousted in the pool before?" he asked as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

                The girls looked at him with strange looks, but Haku chuckled warmly, as if reminiscing over the good ol' days when they jousted 24/7, which he very well could have been remembering at that moment.

                "Why would we ever do that?" Sen asked.

                "Well it's not really like real jousting, it's just a game like that Marco Polo thing we just played," the prince explained.

                "Yeah," Haku piped up. "You need four people to play it; there are two teams that each have one person on the other's shoulders, and the goal is to knock the other team over. Rin and I used to play it with some of the other workers when we were a LOT younger and didn't have to do so much work at the bath house."

                So they played joust. In the first round, Haku and the prince were paired up by the girls because they wanted to be on the same team. On the boys' team, the Price was on the top, and on the girls' team, Sen was on top. That way they didn't have any issues with knocking each other down.

                At first, neither team made much progress, and Sen and the prince were just up there with their hands locked and they were leaning forward so that they didn't fall backwards and they could push the other at the same time. So, Naomi took it upon herself to kick Haku's legs out from underneath him, and he landed on his butt with his head underwater.

                But they weren't technically knocked over, so they were still in the game! Sen and Naomi got a little too cocky over the fact that they pulled off that maneuver, and so the prince caught them off-guard when he grabbed Sen's feet and flipped her backwards off of Naomi's shoulders. The round was over! Score one for the boys!

                However, they decided not to keep track, since Naomi and Sen wanted to change the teams so that they were against each other. They both wanted revenge on the other for having made their team lose that round… yeah, they were sore losers, but so what? It was fun that way.

                So the next teams were Sen and Haku against Naomi and Prince Miruto, and the girls were both on top so that they would be able to do all the grappling.

                And boy, did they grapple! They had absolutely ZERO qualms over giving it all they had. They were best friends, but when it came to competition, they fought like cats.

                Now don't get me wrong— it's not like they were so competitive that they resorted to foul play, but they were very tactful. They started off the same way as Sen and the prince did in the first round, their hands locked and putting all their weight into shoving over the other team.

                Then Sen got the idea to duck her head down and let the force of Naomi's weight against her hands carry her to her doom. With Sen's head down, Naomi ended up falling over her shoulder, and thus, didn't go down like Sen thought she would.

                But hope was not lost! Sen took the opportunity of their positions to grab Naomi around the waist and pluck her off of the prince's shoulders. Then she straightened herself and dropped her friend over her own back, into the water. She and Haku won!

                They played a few more games with the same teams (because certain people had their favorite teammates), and then it started to get dark. They all decided to go get changed into dry clothes and thank the person for letting them use their pool (all after finding Boh and Dayu again, of course), and when they all were outside again, the fireworks were almost ready.

                But while they waited, they took a seat on the edge of that lake that was previously too crowded.

                A few minutes later, they saw the King get up with a Spirit World version of a megaphone not too far away from them. "Attention, everyone! I hope you have all had a wonderful Liberation Day— I know I did!" There was a round of affirmative applause. "Well as one last treat for today, we'll be having some fireworks, so sit back and enjoy!" Then he turned the thing off and took his seat next to the queen.

                The fireworks started going off, and Sen and Haku cuddled up to watch them. The prince pretended to yawn and stretch, and then just _happened_ to let his arm land around Naomi. 


End file.
